Living in Alaska

I wonder if it's what everyone suspects that it is.
I have, in my short years on this earth, found that there are plenty of people who either think of Alaska as a whole other country, which is primitive and wild at best and are scared of the very idea of being in a place so frozen in time. Or, people idolize it because they think of it as primitive and wild and want to experience that in full force, being able to do whatever their primitive minds can think of doing in a country unruled by human effects and fashion.
Despite these notions, I know I can confirm a few things right off the bat.

We don't live in igloos.

We do have dog sled teams, but (usually) not as our main source of transportation. It is a source of fun and sport and for a very few, their livelihood.

Many Alaskans still use the "honey bucket" and or outhouse and, generally speaking, these methods are as common as using indoor plumbing.  But, I think most prefer running water... I think.

It is light all summer and dark all winter. Granted, there is a little transition time during the spring and early winter where it is a little more "normal".

We do have cities in Alaska. Although, someone from New York or Los Angeles might question the validity of that statement, it's true!

We have many, many villages in Alaska. Some have a population of 20 while others might have as many as 4,000. My parents live in one with a population of 80ish.

We have grand mountains and vast tundras, huge trees, dessert land and bogs and islands and ocean and you name it, we probably have it in some form or another.  Mind you, it was probably frozen or still is and will be for the next thousand years, but by george, it's there.

We struggle with what can be grown here but most everything has been tried.  Grapes have flourished in a greenhouse heated by a hot springs.

The northern lights are common in the winter and always magnificent! You just have to get away from the town lights to see them.

Moose abound and will eat your garden if you don't put a HIGH fence around it. Sometimes, that won't even keep them out.

Depending on where you live, bears also abound. Here in the interior, they are not as common as in the southern areas, but boy, they are awesome and deadly.

Some things that I know about my life here:
I am usually cold. But a few days of the year, I get to wear shorts and tanks and my life is once again complete.

There is absolutely NOTHING like a summer in Fairbanks Alaska. No matter where you are from, if you live anywhere south of my town, you have no idea what you mean when you say you are happy for spring to have arrived.

Growing things gives life to my soul, and it's not because I am good at it, it is because I need to see something green, something growing, something that smells like dirt and life during my 9-10 months indoors.

There is no other way for me to survive the winters than by getting out in them.

Summer brings this crazy spirit out of everyone and suddenly all the things that were "planned" for summer get thrown out the window and we are just moving and going and doing ALL the time because there is so much to do and see and build and experience.

Every year is a surprise.

You never get "used" to anything. Not the dark, not the light, not the cold or the snow in June. Not the mosquitoes, not the 40 below temps, or the way the northern lights look when you are skiing in the woods all by yourself and it's dark but the clock says 4:30 pm.

This Alaskan life is ever changing, always keeping us on our toes, guessing and reaching for that unreasonable hope we all get every spring to keep planting, to keep living, to keep loving this place that is supposed to be predictable but continues to surprise me every. single. year.

Why do I live here?
Because I would miss it if I didn't.
Because the people that you find here are a unique bunch anyone would equally love and call crazy.
Because I get to call myself Alaskan. And for as much as anyone might not want to admit it, there is a pretty cool note of pride and respect that goes with that name, and I need all the respect I can get.

2 years old

My little man is very anxious for some things in life. I think he captures most of them in this brief statement:

"Momma, I need a story. I need a stor, I need soup. Momma, I need sou, I need chili!. Momma, I'm hungry!! Let's go outside."

The past few days have been cold and yesterday it hailed. Summer does not want to show itself. Regardless of the weather though, Noah still wants to play outside. I can hardly blame him, but yesterday while it was hailing I told him it would be better to stay inside because, "It's just too wet and cold, baby!"

But he insisted and I was in no mood for a fight. I let him go. Not a minute later he was standing outside the door crying. I went to see him and I asked him why he was having such issues and he informed me, as though I would not ever have known otherwise, that, "It's just too wet and cold, baby!"

Oh how a mother must always hold her tongue! An "I told you so!" would do nothing to affect the situation... So I had to thoughtfully say once more, "okay, come inside." Peel off his coat and boots and have a little more snuggle time on the couch with my sweet two year old boy.

He makes up for any indiscretion though, when before climbing up on the couch he says, "Do you know what Momma? I love you." and leans his little head onto my shoulder.

Can I melt now?

Potty, Potty, Potty

What does it take to get a two year old on the potty? I don't know about you, but in this house it takes a whole slew of bribes and praises. How about milkshakes, movies, candy of all kinds, cars, and play dates with his best friend? Okay, so that might convince him to sit on the potty, but what about actually using it?! I am still working on that one. It's a good thing it is warm outside or we would all be crazy. Most of his accidents have happened outside until today.

I had lots of things planned out for today. Most of them being to attend to the house that was ignored all weekend due to all events surrounding the potty.  There is lots of laundry to catch up on, dishes to wash, bathrooms to clean, the floors however are more sparkling clean than ever before. All such motivations, however, disapeared to the tune of the late day bells of 11am.  Isn't the day over yet?? I mean, it could be 11PM right? Please? How many poops and puddles of pee have I cleaned up today? 20... no, it must be more than that.

My hands are not my own. They are purple gloves swishing swishing swishing over the floor. One more time. Now they are a pile of blankets stained with poop smears and soaked with pee.

Wait, I smell something.

WHERE IS THE POOP?!  What? oh. the baby at least goes in her diaper where it belongs...
Shoot. Going back to diapers sounds easier for all of us.

But lo, I shall persevere.

Dadgumit.

(I don't think you want to see any pictures from today. gross.)

Spring...ish

Just thought I should post some cutie pie pictures of us playing out in our warm weather today. I have been hearing about all these awesome people starting their awesome gardens, and I was getting a little jealous. So I went outside to play with my little ones to get rid of the "summer is not quite here yet" blues.

All my little guy wanted to do was run up and down our slightly sloped driveway... Whatever keeps 'em busy I guess.

 

 

There he goes again!

Sister just wanted to watch. I tried putting her in the snow to crawl around, but she would have nothing to do with such unrefined activities.

She thinks her brother is the cats pajamas.

And he makes us both laugh on a regular occasion.

Snow is melting and we are getting WAY more sunlight. Love it.

And this is the one who likes to eat sticks.

So there you have it. These babies are enjoying our Alaskan spring and by george, I will too.

All my good ideas. Out the window.

I don't know what it is, but these past few weeks have just felt BUSY. I am not normally the type of person to enjoy business, but it seems to have found me anyway. Besides driving around all the time, when I am home, there are, like, a MILLION other things for me to do. And really, there are just as many other things I would RATHER be doing besides the ones I should do.
So here I am. In front of my computer. Totally devoid of motivation for any of it.

During my day while I am trying to fit in exercise, or knitting the next project, or wiping another smear of poop of another child's behind, I think of all these awesome ideas for what to write next on this blog site. And then... I turn, and I see my two year old with one hand down is poopy butt pants and the other hand holding my knitting project, and I quit. My mind has been erased of any magical notions for beautiful stories. 

I'm feel'n a wee bit of guilt...

But not too much I guess because I keep listening to the same music anyway.

Last night we were driving home from our oh so holy Bible study. Not. I mean, we love the Lord and all, but I don't know if you could call this study reverent... The children are running and screaming, there is people eating at all moments, we interrupt the study to eat more, and probably sing a Happy Birthday tune or two, and we really just love to be together more than anything.

Back to the drive home though. My little boy is 2 and a half years old. He sings ALL THE TIME. He remembers words to music where half the time I don't even know what they are saying.  He does jumble things and make them really cute with his sweet little voice, but still, he is better than me by a long shot.

We were listening to the radio on our way home. I had on our local christian station and he says from the back seat, "I don't want this music!" So I changed it to the country station.  Usually he'll go for that, but not this night. This time I asked him what he would like to hear and he replied "Furry Bit!" I was highly confused! Furry Bit?? I have never heard of such a thing and I really was appalled at what that song might just be about. Furry kid music.... or something else.

I was racking my brain and finally it struck me. It wasn't furry bit, it's Dirty Bit. From the Black Eye Peas song "The Time". He loves that song! He loves and laughs each time he hears the words dirty bit in the music!  It was so funny! I was a little mortified that my little 2 year old boy loved the "furry bit" music because it was what I loved to listen too!

So we listened. And it was once more good. We rocked out on the road home and "had the best time of our lives" or something like that. My son is more than adorable. I love him, and I really need to listen to more wholesome music, because do you know what the next song he picked out was?

I, I Love you like a love song baby! And I keep hitting repe p p p p peat!


Look at how innocent and darling he looks. He will fool you. I willingly fall for it everyday.

I started cloth diapers...

I didn't think I would be so nervous about such a seemingly small deal. I had my first day of using cloth diapers yesterday and every time I had to change one I got really anxious! You would have thought I was waiting for something to blow up. I know I was waiting for something to go horribly wrong. But, nothing did. In fact, it was great! It was easy and kind of fun. That fun part might not last, but I am hoping it will get easier.
I am still quite uncomfortable trying to fold and stuff and change those funny diapers. I still have some accessories to buy to make the routine smoother, like a wet dry bag and make more cloth wipes and (crossing my fingers) a diaper sprayer. I would love that.

But beyond that, I think this experience will prove to be much better than I think. I loved the feeling of not having used disposables for one whole day! That means our trash can will not fill up as fast nor be as stinky, our budget will get to be rearranged to eliminate that monthly diaper bill, and there will be no more "oops, we ran out of diapers" moments. That will be good :)

The washing is what makes me the most nervous. There are so many different ways to do it and I don't want to mess up all those diapers by doing something wrong. Mostly, I don't want the fuss of trying to fix it. I know I will probably have to face the dreaded ammonia diaper at some point, but I hope not anytime soon. I want to get the basics down before I have to puzzle out a problem.

One day, maybe I will be able to put advice on here about how to do it all, but until then, I am looking for any advice I can get on the subject! Living in Alaska has it's challenges, like line drying in the sun, and well, getting any sun at all. But we do have a lot of Mommas around who love to cloth diaper.