Catch Up

I feel that I've needed to catch up on some of the things we've been up to lately. The kids are out of school and loving it. Riding bikes, playing in sprinklers, picnics, going exploring, it really doesn't get any better than that! Their last week of school, however, they celebrated Native Week. As a result the kids had the opportunity to make (by hand) their own pair of rabbit fur mittens! I was able to attend that last week and help out and it was so fun! The kids pretty much did most of the work themselves. They are both proud owners of their very own rabbit fur mittens. Only in Alaska!!

Here they are making the string that connects the mittons together. I think it was called finger crochet.

Coleson working diligently.

Malea hand sewing the fleece lining.

Coleson working with the fur, sewing it.

The finished product!

My daughter has reached another milestone. She lost her first tooth!! It was very exciting and there were no tears! She's so tough sometimes. She was excited and I was crying. I don't know where the time has gone that she's already loosing teeth! She was even more excited when she woke up and found money under her pillow. She thought that was a pretty good trade!

The missing tooth!

Loving sisters.

Yummy Tortillas!

Tonight for dinner I didn't have any store bought tortillas so decided to make homemade tortillas (it's not like I can run out to the store real quick!). This is something I've been trying to master for sometime. My grandma made the BEST tortillas in the world, and I would love to be able to just come close. No one can beat hers! So, I've used my grandma's recipe, with a little tweaking because her recipe was in "handfuls" and "pinches" and in "just abouts", not quite the way my brain works. I found a similar recipe online through cooks.com. So, now I have actual measurements. They turned out all right, even though their shape came no where near a circle! The kids loved them and it was fun, trying to keep my grandma's tradition alive. I even gave the kids pointers on how they could use their tortilla to scoop their food, like my grandma used to do. It was a little tricky. They almost managed!

As I watched them eat and as I looked at the plate of tortillas, I thought of my grandma. I grinned thinking how proud she would be of her great grandchildren trying to scoop their food with their tortillas. She would have laughed at my inability to make them, but I'm sure it would have made her smile.

So, I will keep making them, keep attempting to form circles, keep teaching the children how to properly scoop and hope that I will be able to keep the tradition alive. My grandma would've liked that!

The girls enjoying their tortillas.

My odd shaped tortillas.

The boys dig in!

Root Beer Floats!

Being injured has been frustrating, painful and tiring, but I must say, it has had it's perks. We have been sooo blessed by such wonderful friends. People have brought us meals, come and helped around the house and just called to be there for me. I am overwhelmed by all the kindness.

Last night, some friends brought us dinner. They brought us pizza from Anchorage. It was so fun to eat "boxed" pizza for a change. We also had root beer floats. So good! Carlon and I have been on the hunt for the best root beer ever. We've had some really good root beer, but there's always another one to try. Last night we tried Moose Tooth Root Beer. Very good! But we've also grown to love Henry Weinhard's Root Beer as well. So, what better way to decide which is better than to have a taste test. And that's just what we did! Identical glasses, blind fold and of course taste testers. The winning vote? Girls liked Moose Tooth better, boys like Henry's better. But really, can you ever go wrong when having a root beer float?

The taste test begins.

The kids had to try.

Carlon's turn.

What a pain in the rear!

What do you get when you combine an airplane ride, 3 kids, clam digging, beach exploring and fun in the sand? A pain in the rear! Ok, so that's sounds much more harsh than it really is. I'm not speaking of my kids, or my husband for that matter (although, many people have thought that's what I've been referring to). I am literally referring to a pain in the rear end. Let me explain.

We had a super fantastic time going clam digging. Check out all the details, and pictures on our other website, http://www.voranclanadventures.blogspot.com. As we were preparing to leave, I thought it best to take all the kids "to the bathroom" before we left. "To the bathroom" means finding a place in the woods to squat. Well, I took my youngest and she's only 3 so she needs quite a bit of help. I was wearing a backpack and lifted her up in preparation to "squat" her, and fell straight on my bottom where a rock was placed oh so perfectly for me to land smack dab on it. Ouch!! Fortunately, my son was able to get help from his dad and our youngest was able to finally relieve herself. I was then helped out of the woods to the plane and have been in pain ever since.

I wish I had some sort of triumphal tale to tell that would make the injury seem worth it, but alas I was just trying to help my kid go potty! So, I am doing my best to get back to normal, well my kind of normal and enjoy life outside my couch again. My husband is so supportive and can come up with one liners on the spot, referring to my injury. Like,"That sure is a pain in the rear end", or "This is what it'll be like when we're old, the way you hobble." So, he's getting a kick out of it and making me laugh, although that hurts too.

In all this pain and frustration, however I'm reminded of how awesome God is and how He can teach us through all the pain. Humility is one lesson to be learned. I've had such sweet friends come over and help out, or fix food for me and my family and all I can do is say thank you. He's also showing me, once again, how thankful I am for a wonderful husband who is willing to step in and take over and for children who give mommy hugs and kisses and who constantly tell me they love me and hope I get better soon. It is such a good reminder for me. I'm so grateful for God and for what He is showing me. Sometimes I just need to be sat on my bottom to really listen to what He has to say. I pray that I'll listen this time!