What do you get when you have an Alaskan child who is deprived of secular Christmas stories?  You get to overhear the following  conversation.

My four year old was looking at a piano book earlier this morning and was on the page with the song Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  She noticed a drawing of Rudolf.  She pointed to his red nose and then with a bit of urgency and concern she asks,

“What happened to the caribou?!?!?!”

.

.

.

After a short pause she answered her own question.

“Oh, he is blowing a bubble out his nose.”

Image via Wikipedia

.

Do you think it is time for me to tell her the story??  LOL  Nah, overhearing these conversations is priceless!

This past weekend the ladies from the church we attend threw a baby shower for the baby and me.  I have had many a baby shower thrown for me and my newborns but this was by far the biggest blessing of them all.  I love these ladies so much!

Everything was perfect!  There was a cute little safari theme with little monkeys,  a dessert made especially for me with my favorite ingredients, and an amazing group of loving ladies to share conversation with!  These ladies are there to share joys and struggles and to offer encouragement.  There were even the adorable little baby gifts!

BUT…….

What I loved most…..

about the day was that this baby shower was not filled with the typical baby shower games.  Those can be fun but that is really all they are.  My friend who organized the shower suggested something completely different.  Instead of playing the usual baby shower games we had a time of group prayer.  I had several prayer requests that I sent to my friend and she shared them with the ladies who attended.  It was so amazing to have such a godly group of ladies praying over me, my newborn son, and the rest of my family!

They prayed for our little Nathan, that he would grow into a strong, godly, young man.  That he would come to know the Lord at an early age and live a life honoring the Lord.  That he would be healthy.  That God would be preparing a godly wife for him even now.  They prayed for me and for my husband as we teach and train him.  That I would be patient even amidst sleepless nights.  That I would have compassion.  That I would not grow weary and that I would rely upon the Lord in the great task of being a parent.  They prayed the same things for my husband as he leads our household.  They prayed for our family with our upcoming move. They prayed for our other children, for our schooling, and for there to be a good relationship cultivated between our newest son and our oldest who has already moved out.

It was such an unbelievably sweet time of prayer!  I do not ever recall people praying for our family in such a way!  It is an amazing blessing that I will always cherish!

I think of all the gifts that we received that day the time of prayer was by far the most special, most desired, and most needed of them all!

As I thank the Lord for my new son and my entire family, I will be thanking him for the church family he has blessed us with.

Thank you Lord for each of those ladies!  Thank you Lord, that we can come before your throne in prayer!

Thank you ladies of Faith PCA Anchorage!  Thank you for showering us with prayer!!!

I bet some of you thought that I forgot.  I do remember that I have a blog though.  It has actually been a nice little break to not get up and fret about what to write.  My hubby is still off of work and so this blog has been neglected.  I thought that I would share a short update with you, just so you know I haven’t forgotten my blog and my readers entirely.

We are enjoying spending time together as a family.  We have taken a trip to the museum.  Hubby and I have had several dates.  We have taken many trips to Lowe’s and hubby has been working on all the housing/remodeling projects that are yet to be finished.

Hubby ended up catching this nasty bug that we have been fighting for over a month.  He has actually been in bed sick the last two days.  Everyone is a little under the weather right now but we are trying to mend.

Our oldest child moved out last week too.  In some ways it is strange and in other ways not so much.  I just pray that the Lord will direct his life, motivate him, provide for him, and protect him.

We had our first snow.  Though Anchorage has yet to see accumulation I have had about an inch of snow in the yard for the last couple of days.  This of course means that the sleds were pulled out and used!  We finally went through all of the winter gear to see who needed what this year.  YIKES!  Just about all of the children outgrew stuff!!  Thankfully, no new coats were needed but the list of boots, hats, gloves, and snowpants that needed to be replaced almost gave me a heart attack. I did really well though.  I went when all of my coupons were good.  We actually left the house at 8 am with the children to go shopping!!  I thought it was maybe a sign of insanity but it turned out well.  I ended up saving $60 in coupons!  Which brought my bill to ONLY $675!!   At least I will get good reward points for cash off and money off at the gas pump too!

Now for the baby update.  It is finally November!!!  The baby is due in three weeks.  I am so ready!!  You know it is time to deliver your baby when…. 1) you have outgrown almost every maternity item you own and 2) people begin to stare at your belly instead of actually looking at you!

Yesterday was an afternoon and evening of contractions.  Hopefully, they are actually making some progress.  Three weeks of contractions like I had yesterday will NOT be fun!  I have been there and done that!    We are anxious and excited for the arrival of our newest little one.

Soooo, there is the update!  What is going on in your life????

Well, my two with pneumonia are on the mend.  It is amazing what a little pink antibiotic can do!  The rest of us, well, we could maybe do with a little of that pink stuff.  I spent almost the entire day at the hospital going to appointments.  I had my OB appointment.  That actually went well.  I am down to only one finger stick a day now instead of four.  The baby seems to be doing well and growing well!  Baby measured three weeks bigger than two weeks ago but still on track and I only gained one pound to boot!

I did actually manage to get an appointment for another child in the peds clinic, almost unheard of these days.  BUT I was not impressed.  I think I had the one doc who really should not be wearing that title.  She is older and seems absent minded.  She even left her tools laying around the room and never put them away.  She tells me that this child I brought in probably just has a cold.  She can hear nothing to even indicate the need for an x-ray.  I am sitting there wondering if this lady even has good hearing.  I brought up the fact that my daughter complains and moans that her ribs hurt every time she breathes.  That lady actually shrugged her shoulders and said she didn’t know and that she guesses a cold could cause that.  We came home and daughter spiked a temp of 102.5.  That doesn’t sound like just a cold to me.  We will see if her body can fight it off or maybe we will end up back in the ER some time this weekend.

I am fighting this bug as well and feel pretty much like, well, you know.  My temp is gone for now so I will just suffer through it.  Being sick however has made my blood sugar begin to spike so I am praying I get over this soon for more than one reason now.

I am hoping we will all be well by time hubby makes it home next week.  If he makes it home next week like anticipated.  He began his travel a day or so ago and upon reaching his first stop along the way they informed him he was supposed to have been there days ago.  He was given the wrong dates.  Do they know how bored he has been just sitting around while his replacement was already there???  So, I am waiting to hear if they have figured out his new travel arrangements yet.  They do this moving troops thing enough, you would think that the system would have all the kinks worked out.  His travel has been messed up almost every time!  I am just ready for him to be home and so are the children.   They know time is getting short and are beginning to start in with the, “I miss daddy” talk again.  I was hoping the last couple of weeks of this deployment would snowball and go by quickly but they seem longer and longer with each passing day.   Soon though; very soon!

So the plan for today:  Clean and try to kill these pesky germs, piano lessons, pay the bills, grocery shopping, clean out the vehicles, and try not to be sick anymore!

On an up note, I splurged and finally bought myself a pair of Dansko clogs and I LOVE them!!!  )

And yesterday, one child took the PSAT and thinks she did well.  That is one standardized test for the year out of the way!

I guess I should go shower and get the children moving while we wait for the sun to rise.  May the Lord bless your day today!

View of the mountains in Chugiak…one of these is Bear Mountain…taken close to the post office.

Mountains at Mirror Lake…notice the reflection of the mountains in the water.

Pioneer Peak in Palmer…taken from the parking lot at the Alaska State Fair.

Last week the children and I went with some friends to the Alaska State Fair. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day! I am thankful we went. We had so much fun. One of the first stops we made at the fair was the veggie stand. Alaska is known for its giant vegetables and I was expecting some big veggies but WOW!

So I thought that I would share a few photos with you.

This pumpkin set a new record. It weighed in at 1,1o1 pounds!

This cabbage is actually in the photo above too, this is just a close up.  I do not know which cabbage weighed the most this year at the fair but this one weighed in at 93.9 pounds.  That is a lot of coleslaw!!

Here is a kohlrabi weighing in at 20 pounds and a 19.6 pound turnip!

Then there was the fun selection of veggie people.  This one was my favorite.

So, how does your garden compare?  Ha, I don’t even have a garden!  We are a large family but I think that veggies this size would even be too much for us!

Last week while taking my mother around Alaska we stopped in a place filled with glaciers.  Here is a shot of one place we stopped right off of the highway.  You can see the glacier in the back.  The trees were green with a few beginning to turn yellow.  The water a very clear green/blue color.  Black pebbles along the beach.  It was an amazing and awe inspiring view to behold and a photo can barely do it justice.  What was so peaceful was standing there taking in the beauty and listening to the waterfalls from the melting runoff of the glacier in the distance.  It was quite a ways away but you could hear the thundering of the water as it fell.  God makes some indescribable scenes for us to enjoy.  They all point to His magnificence.  As I absorbed this glorious site the unfathomable reminder came to me.  Even with all of this beauty, considering all of his creation, he chose one such as I to love and redeem!  Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my King wouldst die for me!

Alaska has some amazing sunsets! This is definitely not the most spectacular but beautiful none the less. Maybe one day I will be able to capture the sunset with the inlet and the mountains also. For now, I will share the ones my daughter took from home last week. Enjoy!  God’s creation is awe inspiring!

It seems that when my hubby is gone if something can go wrong it will go wrong.  There have been so many stressful things that have happened since he left.  On top of just being without him it has been doubly hard with all of the added stressers.  I am thankful though that I have a Lord and Savior who reminds me that he is here and I am not alone.  It is still hard to deal with the stress though.  There are days when I know I am not dealing very well with it, I pray for strength to go on.  Then there are days that seem to be almost stress free, I praise God for an easier day.  Then there are those days when I think I am fooling everyone (hehe-yeah right).

This past Sunday was one of those days when I thought I had it all together and was fooling everyone.  As I was speaking with a friend and she made the comment that she could see the stress on my face.  What??  I thought I had it all covered up!

Image by angelsk via Flickr

At first, I was not overly happy that it was showing  but then I began to be thankful.  I was thankful that someone noticed!  It is hard when no one seems to notice or even care!  We military wives are expected to just suck it up and get over it!  That is often easier said than done. It is nice to have someone tell you that you don’t have to be tough all the time and that it is okay to struggle. I tell you, if it was not for my amazing church family here (and one neighbor) I would have no support.  I am so thankful for my church family here and how I can always count on them! I am thankful for how they step in and meet our needs.   I am thankful for how they encourage me, how they remind me to point my focus back on the Lord when I begin to focus more on my circumstances. I am so thankful for the friends that I have there!  I am thankful that  they notice and they care when I have had a rough week!  They have truly shown the love of Christ to our family.

Since my hubby left I have spent so much more time in prayer!  That is a good thing!  I have not had my hubby to depend on and it has forced me to rely more and more on my Savior!  Sometimes though it is good to have that physical hug from a friend.  I am glad that I have that with my church family.  I am thankful that the Lord provided me a family here.

So let me challenge you.  If you have military families where you live (well anyone for that matter).  Take time to notice and take time to care.  If you can see stress on their faces be an encouragement don’t just turn and walk away. Make sure to remember them, their situation, and their struggles throughout the separation not just in the first month. Sometimes just noticing and genuinely caring can make all the difference in their day!

Please leave a comment and share some ways that you encourage others or what others have done to encourage you.

Yesterday was a day filled with adventure. It was a memorable day to be sure. I had decided last week that we would be going to Whittier to go berry picking. Yesterday was the only day that everyone in the household was free to make the trip so that was THE day! One lesson learned: CHECK THE WEATHER REPORT BEFORE LEAVING!!

We left and it was a little cloudy and a beautiful morning. By the time our family hit Anchorage it was raining and raining hard. The sky looked clearer down the Turnagain Arm so we kept on moving. It did clear and stop raining for a short time. But by the time we reached Portage and the Whittier tunnel it was raining HARD!

I began to think that we should just skip the whole berry picking adventure and spend some time inside the dry Portage Glacier visitor center but my entire back row was BEGGING to drive through the tunnel and one child in particular was almost in tears saying we were supposed to go and pick berries.

Well, for our van to go through the tunnel to get to Whittier it is a $35 toll. But we did after all drive an hour and a half and the tunnel is fun. I didn’t want the children to feel like it was a wasted trip and to leave totally disappointed so we went. My one year old’s excitement was worth the $35 all in itself! She had wide eyes and her jaw was dropped as we traveled through the tunnel (about 2 1/2-3 miles long). She closed her open mouth long enough to say “mountain, mountain” a few times. The tunnel goes through the mountain.

It was still raining heavily on the other side of course. We traveled the short distance to go toward the berry picking site. We stopped at the portapotties and the thankfully COVERED picnic tables for a quick lunch. Then we headed a little further up the hill. The older children were asking if we were really going to go and pick berries while the almost 4 year old was crying “I want to pick berries now!” I chuckled and said, “Let’s get out. I am sure we will only be here a few minutes but we can pick a couple of berries and then go.”

We put on our rain jackets then grabbed the bear spray and the buckets. We headed up the small hill toward the berry bushes. It is POURING down rain now, don’t forget. I am not talking sprinkling or just a light rain, I mean POURING! The path that is usually clear and dry with maybe a few puddles was a RIVER! Up the hill we went trying not to get our feet soaked. Once the path leveled off it was better. We picked and ate a few berries and then moved further down the path.

Now, I had forgotten that there are waterfalls along this path but last time we went it was not raining. The water hit the ground and flowed right along the rock wall. There are bushes there about six feet between the rock wall and the path and very little water from the waterfalls even made it to the path. That was not the case yesterday! The water was flowing out on to the path and made a nice little river down the path! We are talking some pretty fast moving water here!

For most of the trek we could find a small patch of path that was not covered in water or was only about 3 inches deep. After walking for about a half an hour we came to a point where the water was going to be above all of our ankles and decided to turn back. Now if for some strange reason you think we were not soaked enough let me tell you that my almost 4 year old decided she needed to add tears to the pot! “We don’t have enough berries yet!” she cried. In fact, she almost sat herself down in the river upset! Thankfully, we saved her little bottom from being completely soaked by catching her before she hit the ground. It is true, we only had about a handful. I assured her we would look for more on the way back down the trail toward the van. Now apparently, we had been far too focused on the water and the trail because we did find more berries on the way back. Her sisters all added their berry stash to hers to make her feel better. By time we reached the van we had a couple of cups to show for our trek. Not enough to really DO anything with but she was happy. That is what mattered.

I was rather disappointed that we didn’t have a successful day of berry picking. I was also not overly thrilled about looking like drenched rats either. BUT, it was actually fun and it was a day that the children and I will remember forever! We were making memories and it was definitely an adventure! BUT next time I will check the forecast! LOL

We drove down the mountain with everyone comparing the level of soakedness (yeah I know…but it is a word now!) they were experiencing! We all had a good laugh! Those who didn’t take showers that morning definitely received one that afternoon. We stopped at the little donut shop to get some hot coco ($30). As we sat waiting for the tunnel to leave Whittier we sipped our hot coco and snacked on granola bars. It had been a good day and one that was soaked with adventure!

It was raining so hard that some of the photos wouldn’t even turn out. But I do have a few to share!

Heading up the trail.

Where do we step??

Runoff from a waterfall.

One of the waterfalls.

LOOK-A BERRY!

]]> http://mamaarcher.com/2010/08/05/soaked-in-adventure/feed/ 3