Dawson Needs A Walk

Before Bryce left, I thought about how my evenings would go after the kids went to bed.  I figured that without someone else here at night, I wouldn't have anyone to talk to, drink wine with, or encourage me to watch Dexter or Breaking Bad (both shows I just cannot watch while home alone).  I thought I could really get a lot accomplished around the house.  I could organize all the pictures.  Clean the floors.  Fold laundry.  And surely I could start blogging every day.  Alas, after homework and swimming lessons and wrangling the kids into blissful slumber, I have about zero inclination to do anything except sit on the couch.  And maybe check Facebook.

I've been feeling overwhelmed, because the house is sliding deeper and deeper into the dark side of super gross.  Dawson really needs a walk.  I ought to be reading with Porter every day.  I should be volunteering in his classroom, but I basically never do.  We ate pizza again.  I haven't even looked at the garden in a month.  And I really see no hope of any of these things getting done or better for awhile.  But.  I know that even with my slightly obsessive tendencies, I just have to let it all go.  No one cares except me (well, and maybe Dawson). 

Then, last weekend, we got a surprise visit from Bryce.  It was very short, but we were all very happy to be reunited, however briefly.  And while he was here, I got even less done than before.  And none of it mattered.  And I was happy.

 

This is from our soaking wet camping trip back in September.  Also hard.  But also happy.



Back Home

Bryce came home for two nights and one day this week.  It was great to have him here, but also kind of sad to say good-bye again.  This time for a whole lot longer.  His visit for work happened to coincide with Porter's back to school night, which was hectic and not all that useful.  But we did get to see some fun self portraits.

With Bryce home, I even got the chance to take a walk by myself, which I took in the forest behind our neighborhood.  I took a wander off the trail, and when I got back to where it should be, it just wasn't.  I looked around and all of a sudden nothing looked familiar, and I started doubting which direction I should even take.  Or where I came from.  I spent some time walking around in circles, following what felt like imaginary tracks.  It was silly, because I've been up there many times, and it really should be pretty hard to get lost.  I got that little panicky feeling in my throat, but then I remembered my phone.  Turns out those maps are pretty useful, even if it's just a big blank spot with a blinking blue dot.  I could tell I was going in the right direction and getting closer to my house.  And even though Dawson was my only witness, I felt really, really un-Alaskan walking through the forest staring down at my phone.  But I was also really, really glad to find my way back.   

The Week That Was

Last week was long.  And tiring.  The highlight reel is this:

Bryce left on a plane for a job in another town.  He will likely be gone until mid-November, and will probably only be home for a night once or twice.  It was a hard decision for him, but we will survive and keep the home fires burning.  Molly asks me every day when he is coming home, but two and a half months is too long for a three year old to understand.  Lucky for me, he is safe and sound and not in Afghanistan, and we know he will be home in time for Christmas and the kids' birthdays.

I weaned Cedar.  We were both kind of sad about it, but it was clearly time. 

I went camping with a friend of mine and our six small children.  It would have been a lot easier if it hadn't rained the entire time or if the ratio of kids to adults was slightly more reasonable.  But we had fun.  Everyone got a lot of fresh air, and Cedar got about 600 bug bites on her head.

Porter seems to be enjoying first grade, and has apparently decided this year that girls are sort of okay.  Other than that, and his super 911 crazy underdogs on the swings, I can't get much out if him.  I will assume he is also learning stuff for now.

Finally, Molly and a friend were mobbed by Japanese tourists while playing by a lake.  It was an odd experience all around.

Mac had a bag.

Last summer, I began to work on reading with Porter.  He was so close, but all our sessions ended in frustration, and I eventually decided he just wasn't ready.  We put his beginning reading books aside, and honestly, I've been lazy and haven't taken the time to pick them back up.  He has been working hard in school, but everything I saw him "read" was mostly memorization and interpreting from pictures.  Which is fine, the first step, but not quite reading.  I kept telling myself that he was right on the edge.

And then on Thursday he came home from school, pulled out one of his books, and read this out loud:

It was a book we hadn't worked with before.  He sounded out each word.  Bryce and I weren't even paying a lot of attention, until holy crap he can read.  He read the whole book.  He was so proud!  We were so excited!  And then he read another book.  And another.  Woo-hoo.  It was one of those really amazing parenting moments.  A huge world just opened up for Porter in the blink of an eye, and it was so neat to see.

Meanwhile, not being involved in the fun, Molly had been playing with my phone over in the corner.  Apparently quietly watching YouTube videos, unknown to us all, she announced that the girls were dancing with the penis!  Holy crap you definitely don't have to read to get into a whole new world of trouble.

There will be no more YouTube on my phone.

Also!  Check out this couch Bryce made for the corner of our living room.  It is seriously awesome. 
   

First With Five

This weekend we ventured out of our comfort zone and had a couple of firsts as a family of five. On Saturday we went out to eat for the first time since Cedar was born, where kids outnumbered adults. It wasn't exactly relaxing or fun, but it wasn't horrible either. We even had a nice 15 minutes or so at the beginning with all the kids behaving nicely and being quiet, where we could chat and think highly of ourselves for handling it all so well. And then I had to go on a 10 minute walk with the baby to keep her from crying. And Molly lost her ability to sit in her seat or even be a human being, so Bryce had to exit the scene early and let her run around outside. But we all got to eat, albeit quickly. And we are lucky that Porter is old enough to just sit and color and not be difficult at restaurants anymore for the most part. I don't really think it was worth the money, but I also don't think we drove anyone else crazy. So I'd call it a success.

On Sunday I left Bryce at home with all three kids for several hours, right at Cedar's fussy time of day. I wouldn't exactly call that one a success as the report is she wouldn't take the bottle and cried pretty much the whole time. To his credit though, I received no phone calls or texts, and had a fabulous time getting out of the house unencumbered. And nobody starved or needs therapy. Yet.

Chocolate

I have a friend who is pregnant right now as well, and she told me the other day that she'd been craving eggplant and spinach. And I've been thinking that her baby is really, really lucky since all I've been craving is chocolate and Haagen Dazs Blueberry Crumble ice cream. This weekend, we had a severe lack of chocolate (in any decent eatable form) in the house, so I tried a couple of new recipes from this website.

The first was homemade chocolate peanut butter cups. These were incredibly easy and so, so good. I only made a half batch, which I instantly regretted as the three other members of my household gobbled them up. I used butter instead of shortening in the chocolate mixture, and they turned out perfect.

The second was oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I really like this recipe, it is super full of oats, and would be good with raisins and nuts as well.

We're still working on these, but I don't think they'll last all that long. This weekend Bryce also started building Molly a new, big girl bed. No time like the last minute to build furniture! She is really excited about it, and it's going to look very nice once we move the crib out of her room.

Cowee Meadow

During the past few days, we've had a short but very sweet visit from Grandma Allison. She was graced with some fantastic winter weather here in the Far North (cold, but lots of sunshine), so we decided to spend the night in another public use cabin way out in the woods. Grandma was a great sport, and we really had a great time. The trail was not too long (2.5 miles to the cabin), and relatively flat, but it was still a gargantuan effort with two small children and all the needed camping items. We had to reconfigure different combinations of kids on skis, kids in sleds, kids in backpacks, walking kids, unwilling dogs pulling sleds and the like before we got there.

There was definitely some of this...

And with me being pregnant, Bryce had to shoulder a vast majority of the burden.

But we made it! And we got the cabin warm. And we spent a lovely night playing Uno by lantern light and eating hot dogs and marshmallows cooked over the wood stove. A good time was had by all.

And a small side note, that I know Bryce finds as funny as I do: When we arrived home the next day, we all showered and prepared to go out for pizza. As we were leaving, Bryce couldn't find his wallet. We spent the night and next morning searching through all of the camping gear, the car, all over the house, recounting the wallet's last moments, etc. We finally decided that he'd left it at the cabin. Ugh. He went out there the very next day, skied all the way back, didn't find it, and skied home again. A nice 4 hour trip (it's a little faster without kids). He came home very tired and bummed that he really wasn't going to find the wallet. And then? I found it. In a craaaaaazy place. On the table by the front door. But hey, Bryce is really getting in good shape.

Projects

We had many a project going on at our house this weekend. Bryce has been building the doll cradle for Molly's birthday (tomorrow, eek!), and the last coat of oil is drying on it now. It isn't finished in these pictures, but I'll post more once I can get some good light. He didn't use any metal hardware at all. It's beautiful.

And I finished the blanket and pillow to go inside. I'm happy with my first real solo project, although I will admit this picture hides the totally messed up corners (if anyone can show me how to do the mitered thing, I'd be grateful) and the weird spot on the pillow where I closed it off by hand. But still. It was easy and I had fun. I used this tutorial for the blanket.

Lastly, there is a tree house going up in our backyard. It is in the very early stages right now, but I've seen the plans. It's a behemoth, complete with a hanging bridge and a zip line. I'm hoping the kids survive.

I'm Cooking: The other night I made Potatoes Au Gratin with a new recipe. Kind of time consuming, but damn. They were good. I used the Dubliner cheese again, and halved the recipe since it is enormous. Also covered the dish with foil in the beginning so it wouldn't brown too much. Yum!

Nine Years

Happy Anniversary honey! Time sure flies when you're having fun.

And a lot of it gets wasted when you have an iPhone. Thanks!

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Happy birthday honey! I hope you get to come home from work and help us eat your birthday cake. We miss you.

I'm Cooking: Tomato Basil Crab Bisque. This was fantastic! And after you've shucked all the crab, it's super fast and easy. I don't even think you'd have to use fresh crab as there are a lot of other flavors going on. I didn't use the 1/4 cup of clam juice or extra water, just added some chicken stock to make the right thickness. Also used less flour and a little tomato paste instead of the ketchup and didn't puree it (I like chunks of crab). Delicious.

Friday

Okay, I have to admit that after my last post, I have done nothing about breakfast. I ran out of eggs and motivation and all that. AND, Porter ate fish sticks for lunch yesterday. But I'm getting my act together and starting next week!

Today I went to visit a friend. She is actually Bryce's boss's wife. Her seven grandchildren all live down south, and with no grandparents of our own here, we make a good pair. Her husband has the same kind of schedule that Bryce does, and she offered me a good perspective on reality today that I think I needed to hear. I've been getting very caught up lately in what is good for ME and thinking that meant it was also good for my family. Which, of course, is sometimes the case. But not always. More on this later, but if everyone who has been through it tells me this time with small children goes so fast, I'm thinking I should probably believe it. And quit worrying about what comes after.