Last weekend and this one, we've had the joy of babysitting our 3 year old grand daughter. We really do enjoy having her here. She loves playing with the dogs or sitting in grandpa's chair with her blanket and watching movies (today she decided she wanted a Christmas movie, so we're watching Rudolph right now..) or coloring or, now that the weather is nice, riding her trike around the driveway. Today she got her first ride on grandpa's motorcycle (dirt bike in the yard) and a neighbor's 4 wheeler. She loved it and it looks like she's probably going to start wanting one of her own soon. lol. Though we're going to have to look and see if we can find a good helmet in her size before she goes on any other rides. And we are probably going to the pool later this evening, depending on what time grandpa gets home from his motorcycle ride.
I have had a few twinges of sadness though. She still has some trouble with remembering which names to use for which people. And sometimes, instead of calling us grandma or grandpa (which she uses interchangeably anyway.. ) she has been calling us mommy and daddy. I know she's just working out what words go with what and all, but, still, it just twists at my heart just a little when she does that, because I so dearly want my own little baby to call me mommy. It just makes me a bit sad. *sigh*
Meanwhile I'm stressed and sad and waiting for news about my own mom. They found a shadow in her breast and are doing surgery to remove a small tumor on Monday then they will start her on radiation in a few weeks. And trying to finish getting things all ready for the younger step daughters to come next week for the summer. We are hoping for lots of fun this year.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Some things I do..
Well, there hasn't been a whole lot to report lately. Hubby's job is changing, as it often does with slope work. The contract he's been working under has been bought by a new company, but the company they are doing the work for insisted that the crew he's on stay. So he's in the process of changing companies, which will will mean needing to update paperwork and we're just waiting for everything to be official before we finish all of that up.
Meanwhile, I have spent the last several days doing one of the things I enjoy doing. Canning. Specifically, I've been making jams. I did pickles a while ago. Last year was the first time I'd done pickles in years and I got a bit carried away and pickled everything I could get my hands on. Cucumbers, peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, pea pods, carrots, etc. They were really good and the kids and their friends ate through most of them and demanded more. So I did a bunch more pickles this year. Jars and jars of them. Oldest step daughter took a dozen of them right off, as an early birthday present for the guy they are house sitting for. Hopefully I've got enough of them bottled downstairs to last though the year.
Anyway, this week I decided it was cold enough to do jams. I had a few bags of frozen fruit in the deep freezer that needed using up, and we had pureed and bagged up almost 2 watermelons this last summer, so I had all of that to do something with. I got 31 half pints of watermelon jelly done yesterday. That was a long day and I was very tired by the end of it, but it's good, and will be going into our Christmas gift bags this year for a nice little touch of summer in the middle of an Alaskan winter. That was from 10 batches of jam.. I have a big bowl of foam and left overs in the fridge from that as well, and am trying to think of something to use it for... maybe watermelon thumbprint cookies?
Today was a much easier day. Only two batches of jam needed doing. I did a batch of plain strawberry and a batch of mixed (strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach and white grape). Both were very yummy. I got 8 half pints from each batch. I had done an earlier batch of watermelon and some blueberry jam and blueberry syrup this summer, so between it all, and the bottles I still have from last year's jamming, I may not need to make jam for another 2 or 3 years!
Tomorrow, may plan anyway, is to do a couple batches of butter which will then go into the freezer. I also need to do a small batch of cheese to see how well it freezes. I'm really just starting with cheeses and haven't been able to do anything more complex then a simple quesa blanca. I tried mozzarella once, it didn't work out too well, but my hubby thinks he killed my thermometer which may have been the problem. I need to try that again, but probably won't have time for it until after Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, this is the year we have the girls for it instead of Christmas. This year, because of hubby's work schedule and the fact that the grand baby's birthday (she'll be 3) is on Saturday, we're having the big family dinner and party on Saturday instead of Thursday, and the oldest gal wants to host at the house they're at. Which is fine. It's her first year up here, everyone will be here (except her brother, as far as we know anyway..) and, hey, means I won't have to do the clean up! We've got the menu mostly nailed down and we're splitting it up so no one is doing everything. We'll both be doing turkeys though. She wants to brine one, but because of my blood pressure I am on a low sodium diet and brined turkey is not a good idea when I know there's going to be an abundance of salt in other things (though I'm working on that as much as I can...) so I'm doing a non-brined one, that will instead have a great herbed butter tucked under the skin. It has never failed me. :)
Meanwhile, I have spent the last several days doing one of the things I enjoy doing. Canning. Specifically, I've been making jams. I did pickles a while ago. Last year was the first time I'd done pickles in years and I got a bit carried away and pickled everything I could get my hands on. Cucumbers, peppers, asparagus, cauliflower, green beans, pea pods, carrots, etc. They were really good and the kids and their friends ate through most of them and demanded more. So I did a bunch more pickles this year. Jars and jars of them. Oldest step daughter took a dozen of them right off, as an early birthday present for the guy they are house sitting for. Hopefully I've got enough of them bottled downstairs to last though the year.
Anyway, this week I decided it was cold enough to do jams. I had a few bags of frozen fruit in the deep freezer that needed using up, and we had pureed and bagged up almost 2 watermelons this last summer, so I had all of that to do something with. I got 31 half pints of watermelon jelly done yesterday. That was a long day and I was very tired by the end of it, but it's good, and will be going into our Christmas gift bags this year for a nice little touch of summer in the middle of an Alaskan winter. That was from 10 batches of jam.. I have a big bowl of foam and left overs in the fridge from that as well, and am trying to think of something to use it for... maybe watermelon thumbprint cookies?
Today was a much easier day. Only two batches of jam needed doing. I did a batch of plain strawberry and a batch of mixed (strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, peach and white grape). Both were very yummy. I got 8 half pints from each batch. I had done an earlier batch of watermelon and some blueberry jam and blueberry syrup this summer, so between it all, and the bottles I still have from last year's jamming, I may not need to make jam for another 2 or 3 years!
Tomorrow, may plan anyway, is to do a couple batches of butter which will then go into the freezer. I also need to do a small batch of cheese to see how well it freezes. I'm really just starting with cheeses and haven't been able to do anything more complex then a simple quesa blanca. I tried mozzarella once, it didn't work out too well, but my hubby thinks he killed my thermometer which may have been the problem. I need to try that again, but probably won't have time for it until after Thanksgiving.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, this is the year we have the girls for it instead of Christmas. This year, because of hubby's work schedule and the fact that the grand baby's birthday (she'll be 3) is on Saturday, we're having the big family dinner and party on Saturday instead of Thursday, and the oldest gal wants to host at the house they're at. Which is fine. It's her first year up here, everyone will be here (except her brother, as far as we know anyway..) and, hey, means I won't have to do the clean up! We've got the menu mostly nailed down and we're splitting it up so no one is doing everything. We'll both be doing turkeys though. She wants to brine one, but because of my blood pressure I am on a low sodium diet and brined turkey is not a good idea when I know there's going to be an abundance of salt in other things (though I'm working on that as much as I can...) so I'm doing a non-brined one, that will instead have a great herbed butter tucked under the skin. It has never failed me. :)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Nieces
Today I thought I'd talk a little about my nieces. My younger brother and his wife (she is from Venezuela) have three beautiful little girls, Shayla, Mikaela, and Sasha. Ages 8, 6 and 4, this is a picture of them taken in April, around the time of Sasha's 4th birthday. I don't get to see them often, in fact, I've never gotten to meet the younger two and haven't seen Shayla in ages. But my brother does his best to keep us informed as to all their crazy antics.
See, the problem is, I live in Alaska now, and he lives in Nebraska. Not an easy trip to make most of the time. I miss getting to be part of their lives, but I love hearing about their crazy antics. This year, so far anyway, It's been a Sasha year. Silly girl had pneumonia earlier this year and had fever spikes so high she started having seizures and had to spend some time in the hospital. She recovered from that just fine, thankfully, but apparently decided that she really liked the hospital and just a few weeks ago managed to break her arm while jumping off the couch when her parents weren't looking. I think she did it just to go back to the hospital. She was apparently very brave though and didn't cry. The doctors didn't think she could have broken the bone until they got the x-rays back, they'd never seen a 4 year old that calm.
I don't have too many stories about Mika, apparently she's the quiet sort, though she started school not too long ago, and most of Shayla's stuff these days is related to school. Shayla had been born with a cleft palate, and had lots of surgery right off the bat, but she has healed up very well and you barely notice the scar on her lip, so yay for modern medicine...
Anyway, I can't say too much about them, as I know my brother doesn't want too much info about them put up on public forums, but I wanted to share a glimpse of my extended family. He is hoping to move soon, I doubt it will be all the way up here, but we're hoping they can come up and visit some time in the future.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Beginnings
We are about to embark on the official beginning of our adoption journey and I decided that it would be a good idea to keep a record of this process for myself and others who are out there on the same journey.
I will soon be chronicling our family story and how we have come to this point, who we are, what we believe, how we live, etc. But for today I just wanted to sit down and say hello. We, like most families, are a complex mix of things. For the sake of their privacy, I will likely be using initials instead of names for some members of the family unless or until I get their permission to do otherwise. Same may apply to other friends who might get brought up from time to time.
More later....
I will soon be chronicling our family story and how we have come to this point, who we are, what we believe, how we live, etc. But for today I just wanted to sit down and say hello. We, like most families, are a complex mix of things. For the sake of their privacy, I will likely be using initials instead of names for some members of the family unless or until I get their permission to do otherwise. Same may apply to other friends who might get brought up from time to time.
More later....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
