Q-t pie- Sharing some goodness

Why is it that  people think it's ok to take their own frustrations out on other people who are just working hard to do their job at the best of their ability?

Whether it is Walmart workers during the holidays, toll booth workers on the turnpikes or flight attendants on airplanes, just to name a few.... These people work hard at their job and too often enough take the brunt of the negative attitudes people think they need to expel into the universe! lol

SOOO... we thought we would reenact the random act of kindness that we started a few years ago...

The girls worked on these little creations for a week before we left on our trip!! They handed them out to all the airline workers we can in contact with on both flights... and we were sure to thank the TSA workers too.... I think it is so important for our girls to know how lucky we are to be able to fly to see our family, and how greatful we should be for the TSA workers that keep us safe. I hear too many people complain about the inconveniences of going thru metal detectors and having their bags searched, but I know that we had nothing to hide. :) If they are checking our bags, then that means they are also checking the bags of people with less than honorable intentions!! I am greatful to live in a country that is free and will always let them know how thankful we are... I hope my girls will always be that way too!!



That being said... I am very glad that I could bring knitting needles in my carry on! :) I am attempting my first sweater with the yarn we have been dying! :) More on that later...

Blast off!

We've been counting down the days till our big adventure.... This adventure was the first of its kind and a bit nerve racking for me but pure adrenaline for the girls! lol

A few days ago, we made the trip by plane from Washington to Pennsylvania with a short stop in Dallas. This was a first of its kind because not only had the girls never flown (or at least not that they remembered) but we had never done it without Daddy!! Boy what a difference that makes! I wasn't really worried about the trip part of it , but have been dreading being away from hubby for so long. I have never been the one to leave and it is a bit weird but we're dealing with lots of texts and nightly phone calls. The girls are doing really much better than I thought they would be. Modern technology helps so much!

In preparation for the trip tho, I tried to be prepared with little things that I thought would make the trip easier. We are not ones to carry dvd players or gaming systems with us everywhere we go (just our own personal choice- nor do we own them) so I had to think of other things to keep them occupied during the air time we had ahead of us. We had the usual coloring book, crayons and drawing pad... mixed in with new word searches, wipe off books and knitting for J and sewing cards for R. My secret weapon was a little collection of wooden peg dolls that I made "just incase" the trip turned ugly....

 Well, I hate to brag... ok maybe I don't... lol I am sooooo proud of how well the girls did!! There was not even a nano second of ugly on our trip. I am reminded daily how wonderful our girls are but somehow it always seems to surprise me at the goodness they are capable of. They did so good on the trip that I was even able to snooze for about 20 minutes (after having only 2 hours sleep the night before!) and they played with this set  for over an hour... only putting it away when they absolutely had to for landing! :)

Please excuse the crappy pictures... cell phones and bad lighting don't mix! :)

I love how the girls can entertain themselves. They have always been so good at that and I have to think that it comes from always offering them open ended toys and limiting the ones that stifle creativity... sometimes I just like to sit back and watch their playtime unfold! :) Even now that we have landed, they are still playing with this set!  They dug out the wooden farm set that Oma has and the stories have exploded with a new adventure!

***Dr Quinn has become such a blessing in our house. It is a good family friendly show that we can watch together with the girls and yet we still enjoy it too!! While there have a been a few shows that we have skipped over due to topic, (Matthew dating a gal from Hanks saloon) there have been other shows that opened up conversations that I otherwise wouldn't have known how to (race topics)... There has been so many historical things that we have researched because of this show (Custer and Walt Whitman) and I will be so sad when we are finished with all 6 seasons....


We so love introducing the girls to shows we loved as kids and that are family friendly.... I don't know what made me think to make them into peg dolls and now I'm excited to think of the other sets I can make for even more extended play and adventures for them. What were some of your favorite shows, movies or characters? I think we'll start watching the Walton's next!

The other side traggedy

It's been almost a week since our electricity came back on and yet somehow the whole ordeal is still the number one topic of conversation. Some of the yards have been cleaned up a bit from all the tree limbs and the remnants of trees litter the roadsides still... the fresh cut of a downed tree still exposed as if sharing a view into its soul. As I look out into my yard, I have flashes from the movie Fern Gully flickering in and out. In the movie there is a scene where a forest of trees is branded with red Xs on all the trees subject to the cut throat evil of the developers. And then there is a view of the trees who have already met their ill fated futures, cut down and sad.... That is how I view our area lately. The trees are all broken off mid way, or fallen over completely, some even taking the roots right with them. There are sections of our woods that will never be there same and the clean up is far from over. We've only hit the tip of the ice burg, and I know that even once the fallen trees have been removed and our pathways have been uncovered... these woods will never be the same.

Along with the stories of snapping trees and an inconvenienced few days we all had to endure in some way, there are the other stories being told. Some of them are heart warming tales of neighbors pulling together, sharing what food or warmth they had to give. Friends reaching out from towns away to bring safety and comfort to friends in need. There are the amazing workman, who have worked so tirelessly on our behalf, some working nearly 36 hours straight to bring us our most prized conveniences like cable and hair dryers.... Those are the good stories that I want to remember from this ordeal while others stick with me and make me want to be a better person so as not to ever go to the dark places I think some people go to in times of need and panic....
 

Right along with the good stories, there have also been bad ones. Tragic occurrences like these tend to either bring out the really good in people or show ugly sides of people we never thought could be there. I have seen so many comments on FB of people complaining about the power outage, as if someone was to blame for it. They want to pin it on someone and make them pay. I have heard of great loss and people making snide comments as if they deserved it and more.... only because those individuals were not in the "norm". I have felt the need to get these thoughts out, but then wondered if I really should, if the words would come out right...and then the other day it was just too much.... while praying with other moms at my homeschool co-op, it was brought to my attention that they have actually had to call out police to guard the men and women working on the power lines.... yeah, there is that kind of ugly in the world where the very people trying to help us, putting their lives on the line to work around such dangerous trees, and weather, aren't even safe from the people they are trying to help....

As for me, everyone keeps asking me if we've gotten back to "normal" yet and I just have to answer "no"... because I don't want to.... That first 24 hours of no power, I will admit, was a bit overwhelming and I felt a panic that I've never felt before. We get so dependent on things like water coming out of our faucets and lights turning on on command that we don't know how to function when they are suddenly taken away. After we got used to having to think out our next move, and plan how we were going to execute things, there was a simplicity to life that I don't want to let go of. I think that it takes times like this to make us stronger and to show us who we really are. I'm proud of the way we handled the situation, and while I was very excited to have power again.... I'm glad for the times we spent in the dim light of our little livingroom tent....I'm glad that we chose to take the high road and pray for those who didn't...

97 hours of darkness

Wow, where to begin... the power outage ended up lasting for 97 hours!!!

97 H O U R S!! I've heard of such things on the news, and heard stories of people who lived thru such things after natural disasters but honestly, do we ever think it will happen to us?! NO!

For 97 hours we huddled under that make shift tent in our living room. It was by no means toasty but it was warm enough. My fingers were cold tho so there was little knitting for me. Bummer huh? Nothing to do but stay warm and I couldn't even knit! :) You don't realize how fast a day can go by when you have to think out and execute every little thing you need. We were able to go to my husbands work that actually had power, and fill up water jugs and take a shower. Who would have thought that after 3 days of no shower, such a simple act would change my entire outlook on things! lol I felt like a million bucks! And we went home with drinking water to boot! It was a win win!

We were among the lucky ones, having the generator meant we didn't have to lose all of our food. I was able to move a lot of it into one freezer and that one freezer was hooked up to the generator. Then it became a game of putting food from the fridge outside in the snow, on the back porch and eventually into the freezer (the snow melted away fast with all the rain) that was not plugged in but still very cold as I had a few big containers of ice that just happened to still be in there. All and all, I think we only lost about $100 in food. It could have been SOO much worse! Some of my friends were able to be reimbursed their losses thru insurance, and we could have too but our deductible was higher than what we lost so I'll just consider ourselves lucky! :)

I've had a few people ask if this all happened due to the snow. Yes and no but mostly it was the freezing rain that quickly followed and then the wind that came thru with a vengeance.

It started out with a beautiful snow...

Followed by LOTS of freezing rain....

And ended in what looked like a tornado had come thru our trees....

It went from this.....                                     
                        To this.....











What a difference a night can make huh?! lol

Indoor camping

Its hard to believe its been over fifty hours since i first sat down to write about our blackout. We thought we were out if the woods when it came back on... only to last about an hour before going out for good.... and so, its been over fifty hours total that we've been without it and we don't really see an end in sight!

An adventure is putting it mildly! We managed that first night in the cold but after it had been out for over ten hours,the house temp definitely took a nose dive! Dh decided to brave the roads and head out to get us a generator, definitely not something in the budget but wow am I glad to have it!

When he first hooked it up, we were so excited to stand in front of it and feel heat coming out of our fireplace... but soon realized that it wasn't going to heat the room. It wasn't getting any warmer and it had been a few hours already! I must admit, I thought he was crazy. DH suggested we build a tent out of plastic to help hold the heat in. Maybe I was in denile about just how long we were going to be in this predicament.  So, we moved the furniture in close to the fireplace and build a tent with big sheets of plastic we had from moving. I still can't believe the difference it makes! As long as we are in the tent, it is taking the chill off but boy, if you step out of the tent you'll know it!!

I still can't believe how crazy this is, sitting under a plastic tent in my living room watching movies on the laptop. But  I can say how thankful I am to have such a resourceful husband!! :)



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Simplicity unexpected

It’s funny how a simple thing like electricity going out can cause what feels like chaos in a house hold. The mad dash for flashlights, the digging in junk drawers for matches, the occasionally tripping over a much confused dog or two… lol  In the 30 minutes or so that its been out already, I’ve found my mind racing to figure out how we will manage without it and coming up fairly empty on answers.  Our dinner was about half cooked, but not warmed enough to eat and after a bit of digging we have a nice warm glow coming from the candles we have placed around the house.  I do find it funny all the little things that the girls keep asking if they work…. If I turn on the night light in the bathroom will it work? Why can’t we watch a show? Will you make me something to eat? Lol

IF you’ve watched the news at all, you know that the Pacific Northwest has been getting hit with one heck of a snow storm, on top of snow storm and yet another snowstorm! And now we await the freezing rain that's on its way! We have been finding it fairly comical to watch the news and see the reports of people who clearly weren’t using their heads while they were driving (SLOW DOWN!), or should have just been staying home all together.

Having spent time in Alaska, this little break from the rainy norm has been a welcomed diversion! Even our dog (who is an Alaskan husky) is in pure joy over the 10-12 inches of goodness that fell over night. She was literally like a kid in a candy store when she plowed out passed the girls to race them to the snow first! Lol

It’s times like this that  we are forced to slow down and re-group… it shows us how programmed we are to something we’ve come to depend on entirely too much!  I think back to pioneer days and what they must have felt when the sun went down and the lights grew dim. It’s no wonder they were early to bed and early to rise! Lol I have candles scattered all over and it still seems as tho the dark will swallow us up. It’s kind of funny just thinking that I am sitting here in the dark typing this out on my laptop! Typing out my thoughts are just so much easier than handwriting it and scratching out mistakes and such. Plus it would be an adventure in itself if I were to go in hunt of a notebook at the moment!! lol

 Lego play by candlelight! :)

Of course, it doesn’t help that our house runs completely on electricity, and that the only fireplace we have also plugs into the wall!! Ah, the joys of being renters! Blah!  We are starting to feel the temperature in the house drop and the layers are coming out. Our trusty knit slippers and cozy robes are coming to the rescue for now but to be honest I’m not sure how we’ll manage long term. DH ran into town to fill up the propane tanks (I do believe I remember mentioning about that a few days ago! I’m not one to say I told you so tho! Lol)  If it gets too bad we could go out in the camping trailer and stay warm that way plus I’d have the stove to be able to cook on out there. Hot water might come in handy… oh wait! We have very little bottled water! Ok, maybe I need to make a list of things we need to have on hand or rethink in case this happens again!! Lol  I guess we’ll just have to go find some clean snow out there!   Oh the adventure!

FYI- The power ended up being out for about 10hours... so we layered up and added a few blankets to the bed and snuggled in for the night! :) The list of survival gear to have has grown tho... will be saving for a small generator! :) Last night makes me think of this song... it's one of my favors... just picture two adults, two kids, a cat and a jack russell under a feather down comforter! ha!

Dying to be creative!

I started this year off with ideas of what I wanted the new year to be... goals I want to accomplish I guess. Not really resolutions, because come on, how many of those do we actually follow thru on? I set a goal for myself to really use my stash of crafting materials this year, to at least try not to by any materials but rather use what I already have! I know I'm only two weeks into this challenge but I'm really excited with what we have accomplished so far and am really enjoying the joy that I feel when I have completed a project... So take a look into what the girls and I have been doing this week and how we turned this boring Fisherman's wool into something to really get  excited about! :)

 

We started with this Fisherman's wool that can be bought at Michaels or JoAnn's (use a 40% coupon and it's a great deal!)

 

I then used this chair to wrap the yarn around and get it ready for dying... you can see I had lots of help for this stage of the process! lol NOT! Kobuk enjoyed this step way more than I did! lol

Then we used cotton yarn to tie the yarn into something we could hopefully keep somewhat neat! I read that you could use cotton yarn because it will not get colored in this process and will then stand out easier in the mess of colors and yarn.

From here on, you should probably follow this tutorial. It's the one that we used and it turned out great! Definitely take her warning about the red tho.... that stuff is wicked!!! One the first batch the colors really bled... on our second batch R accidentally poured almost a whole packet in... and it was VERY RED!!!!! lol So red that I had to dump the water because the yarn wasn't soaking up all the color, nor did I want it too!! Luckily, I was able to add in some other colors and all was not lost. I'll have to post pics of the second batch tomorrow tho as it is still drying and we have yet to use the yarn baller with it yet! Another day!

Now J is plotting her newest  project... a scarf! She has been knitting for awhile now but only making little projects like book marks. So, I gave her a challenge. If she makes her own scarf and finishes it, I will make her a pair of matching mittens. I guess I gave myself a challenge too since I've never actually made mittens before! lol I like a good challenge and it has given her the boost she needs to keep going. She even asked if she could knit in bed instead of reading! I so enjoy doing these kind of creations with my girls. I hope they learn to love creating worthwhile and useful items and that with hard work and perseverance you can create beautiful things no mass producing machine could compete with!