Tisha

Back when I was in junior high/high school, this book was one of my all-time favorites. I must have read this book 100 times, and passed it around to all my family members, as well. I guess I just really identified with the heroine, someday thinking that perhaps I too would go off to do wonderful, meaningful things. 

This book has it all: Adventure, Mystery, Horror, Romance… everything you need to capture a young girl’s attention. There’s a lot to live up to, as well: facing near insurmountable odds, doing the right thing even when it’s scary, and heading out on your own to a very uncertain future.

For my high school graduation gift, Mother took my brother and I on a road trip down to Phoenix where I was planning to go to school. We picked my sister up along the way from where she was going to school in California. Before that happened, however, we stopped in the small town of Tok, just this side of the Canadian Border. We were in our camper, so most likely we had a spot somewhere to park for the night, but we took a drive through town to look for somewhere to eat dinner.

I don’t know what it was that caught mother’s eye, but somehow, she knew to stop. She pulled up right next to this battered old pick-up truck and got out to talk to the driver. You will not believe who it was: it was Anne Purdy, the actual heroine that Tisha is written about!!! I was absolutely STAR STRUCK: we got to meet Anne Purdy!!!

She was in her 80s or 90s by then but was still quite spry and was more than happy to talk to us. We, of course, told her how much we loved her story. We didn’t have our book with us, but she wrote this note on a piece of paper for us. Sadly, I cannot read her writing – but it’s her handwriting, and it’s Anne Purdy!!!

I am re-reading the book right now, to see if it still speaks to me as strongly as it did back then.

Surprise For Ruth

My partner and I use a “Scheduler” program called Cozi that is based online so we can both access either through our phones or our computers. This way, we keep track of each other’s whereabouts and can book events knowing that we’re not double-booking over the top of something the other might have wanted to go to. It’s a pretty spiffy program, with a Birthday feature and the ability to make lists and the like. It used to have an address section – which honestly was one of the reasons we chose the program – but they discontinued that several years ago.

I was looking at our schedule a few weeks ago to see what was coming up for us, when I came across an entry called “Surprise for Ruth” on a Monday at 3:00.

Well, well, well! What might THAT be? Clearly, it’s a surprise - but why specifically 3:00? My mind went all over the place, from perhaps a singing telegram (yes, he’s done that before) to a special delivery of a new kitten – or maybe even some goats! Wouldn’t that be cool?

Well, Monday finally rolled around, and I discovered that he had hired a company called PolarGlow to come out and give my car a thorough detailing! Inside only, but still – WOW!!! I love it!

The girl who worked on my car – right in our driveway, I might add – did a great job. She spent a good 3-4 hours and got my car spotless again! It’s truly amazing how dirty a car can get, particularly during break-up.

What a great surprise!

But now I need to wash the outside…

Another Update on Mother

So, mother has been in her room in the Fireweed Hall for over a month now, and she’s finally learning how to get herself back to her own room without help. Her memory is not good: she can lose a thought 2 minutes after having it, and engaging in an actual conversation with her is almost impossible. I just let her take the lead and just respond to whatever she happens to say at that moment in time.

Bryan and I delivered a chair to her just today: it’s a nice leather chair that is both a rocker and a recliner. I’m worried that she won’t remember how to operate the recliner part, even though the remote is as simple as you can get it with only two large buttons on it. But I will keep reminding her each time I go visit, so eventually perhaps she might find a way to remember. I may even create a sign to hang on the wall beside her chair that has a picture of the remote and simple instructions on how to use it. She may or may not use it.

We all go visit her as often as we can. Noel has been amazing, going every single day to take her to all the different events that go on. Her favorite has been the Sunday Sing Along, where she and Noel sings all the old hymns that Mother knows from way back. But she also does well in the Art Classes, and who doesn’t love an Ice Cream Float now and then? They even cook a special meal once a month that the resident’s families are invited to, so we can all sit down to dinner together. Also, I try to schedule a Family Gathering once a month to sit with mom and just chat. Whomever can come does, and those who cannot, can make the next one.

One of the first things I did when she moved in there was to reach out to her friends to let them know where she is. Two of them have made a serious effort to visit her as often as they can. Sean and Mom go way back: he is a retired teacher, and she used to help out in his classroom sometimes. Karen and Mom were shooting buddies back when Stan was alive, and she has committed to visiting mother every Friday. I am so thankful for both of them – mother truly enjoys their visits.

Mother still enjoys getting mail, and two people in particular are keeping her well supplied with letters from afar! Linda was mother’s neighbor back when she had the farm but now lives in New Mexico: she sends letters, magazines and whatnot so mother can enjoy perusing the beautiful pictures and hearing all the news from her birthland. Cousin Anna keeps her up on all the news from the Montanna bunch while also keeping in touch with me via email and/or texting.

So, all in all, she is doing well.

Bunk Room/Office Remodel

Now that mother has moved into the Pioneer Home, we have begun the process of turning the old Bunk Room into Bryan’s Office!

The first step was to hire a contractor to come out and give us an estimate on how much this is going to cost us. It came in about what we expected, so we went ahead and scheduled him for the first week of May.

The second step was to take down the bunk beds, a monumental task in itself. My brother said that he would take the beds for his youngest girl, Kaylee, so they are emptying out her room in order to install them in there – meanwhile they are in pieces in our garage waiting us to deliver them (and help install them, of course). I think she will love them!

Then he ripped out the flooring and prepared the room for the contractor to install new wall covering and new flooring. He’s chosen a tongue & groove wall and a laminate floor – not what I would have chosen, but it’s his room so he can do whatever he wants in there! He’s very excited about it.

The tongue & groove planking arrived the other day, so he is in the garage now sanding it all down so that we can condition and stain it prior to installation. It’s an incredibly messy job = our garage is completely coated in a thick layer of sawdust now. Everything in there will have to be cleaned somehow.

He has a bit of a time crunch to get everything done, too, because he’s actually leaving for another trip in a week. He won’t get back until a day or two before the contractor arrives to do his work! 

The Slow Carb Diet

Bryan read about this diet in a book he got and wanted to try it out. I, being the supportive partner that I am, told him I would do it with him for at least a few months. The main theory is that we are not allowed any carbs, along with a few other restrictions. I have to be honest and say that I’m not a huge fan of it, yet – but it is working. Slowly but surely, the pounds actually are coming off.

We can’t have rice – which used to be a huge staple in our meals, so the lack of it is very noticeable. We also can’t have pasta, fruit, dairy products, or alcohol. Actually, the list of what we CAN’T have is longer that what we CAN have, and all of it is tilted more towards his preferred diet than mine.

They do allow for a “cheat day” however, where you can have anything you want, which does make it a little easier. We have opted to make Sunday our cheat day so that we can continue with the Sunday Sourdough Pancakes. That has been a tradition in our home since we moved out here, so being able to keep it going is definitely a plus.

We’ve also decided to make Sunday our Game Night! We take turns choosing which game to play and have a special desert to go with it. This was prompted by cleaning out an old cabinet and moving all our board games down from the attic, making them a lot more accessible.

For our first Game Night we make Ginger Cookies and played Guess Who. This is actually a game for children – but it was pretty fun, regardless. We couldn’t possibly eat all the cookies, so ended up freezing half of them for next Sunday.

On our second Game Night we played one of our favorite card games called Phase 10 – and of course, ate the rest of the cookies.

Our third Game Night was an old favorite: Cribbage and Cake! Who doesn’t love either of those, I ask you?

The Cat Wall

Facebook has all these pictures and videos of people who have these amazing walls covered in shelves and platforms and hammocks and swings and all kinds of cool stuff specifically for their cats. And the cats apparently love it, spending all day racing around the room jumping from one platform to another, or lazily lounging in a hammock above their human’s head.

I, of course, wanted that for my kittens: because you can never spoil your kittens enough. My partner said if I got the shelves, he would install them for me – so I went online and found a few that I liked. $169.00 later, a couple rather large boxes arrived at our front door from Amazon.

Sadly, my kittens were not impressed. When I put Naldo up on the top platform, she just jumped down to the ground and walked away. When I put Viktor up there, he got frightened and had to be shown how to work his way down step by step. Neither of them has been up on their own since, although I do keep putting them up there in hopes that they’ll start to use it on their own.

All in all, it’s a bit under-whelming, to say the least. I’m hoping it will get a bit more enticing (to Naldo, at least) once he installs the two hammocks I got. But honestly, I’m not holding my breath.

Dehydrated Ginger

I tried an experiment the other day. Since I’m using so much ginger lately with my drink each night, I wanted to see if there was a way to store it long-term rather than having to buy a hunk of root every three or four days. And, since 3 Bears had a huge selection of amazingly large ginger root, I went ahead and bought two nice big sections and gave my dehydrator a whirl.

I did not peel them. Some people said you have to, others say it’s not necessary. I guess it’s up to you whether or not you peel before you use it. Since I’m just boiling it, I see no reason why I should expend the effort to peel it and so leave it on.

When I make my tea each night, I typically slice the ginger quite thin – so that’s what I did for the dehydrator. Turns out, that was not a good thing to do. I should have cut it maybe a quarter of an inch thick. Certainly, no thinner than an eighth of an inch. My nice big (albeit thin) slices of ginger turned into tiny little crumpled up balls of ginger. They look funny – but I’m thinking they’ll still work for boiling. I will have to play with the amount of water I use, since a lot of it will have to go in to rehydrating the ginger.

I’ll try it again later on and see if cutting it thicker works better.

Sutton -vs- Hatcher Pass

Two weekend get-aways - each one eagerly awaited and yet each one so very different:

 

Hatcher Pass: February

Sutton: March

 

Hatter Pass: the plan was for him to go skiing at Skeetawk and for me to just relax with my card making. Unfortunately, Skeetawk had no snow, so he was unable to go skiing. Instead, we both stayed in the cabin and relaxed with our computer/crafting.

Sutton: the plan was for each of us to just relax, him with his computer work and me with my card making.

Hatcher Pass: the cabin was very small. It did have a kitchenette and a bathroom, but it was very cramped.

Sutton: the cabin was quite spacious with a full kitchen/dining area, a nice living area, and a bedroom downstairs as well as a loft bedroom upstairs. We opted to not use the loft, spending all our time down on the main level.

Hatcher Pass: the cabin was just off the road in a nice, wooded lot. There were maybe three other cabins, each one slightly different in size. I don’t know if ours was the smallest, but it sure felt that way.

Sutton: located several miles off the highway in a sparsely populated residential neighborhood, overlooking a lake where several people were ice fishing. Our host lived just down the way, within walking distance.

Hatcher Pass: no pets allowed.

Sutton: Our kitten got to come too! I love having them with me, and they seem to enjoy traveling as well. They exhaust themselves exploring the new places, getting into all kinds of trouble throughout the night.

Hatcher Pass: We probably would not go back again.

Sutton: I would LOVE to go back again, specifically in summertime. I’d love to see what the view looks like when it’s all green and lush!

Dinner with Mother

Once each month, the Pioneer Home holds what they call a “Festive Dinner” where each resident gets to invite their family to come eat with them. They typically are a themed dinner, so this month’s decorations were all green leprechauns and four-leaf clovers.

Bryan and I arrived to find mother seated at a table with our places reserved beside her. She was happy and chatty, although I must admit that she did not make much sense. Her sentences were fractured and disjointed, and I never could quite figure out what year she was present in. She did keep asking about her car and wanted me to take her to go see Hank about getting a new one. She also mentioned several times that all her jewelry had been lost (she did not bring any of that with her when she moved for fear of losing it all). But overall, I think she had a good time.

Dinner consisted of Corned Beef with Cabbage and Potatoes. A few pieces of “bangers” on the side to add some more Irish flavor to the plate. Mother did not eat a whole lot, but I snuck my beef onto her plate, and she ate it all. Desert was a choice of Carrot Cake, a Cup Cake (I don’t know what flavor) or a piece of Grasshopper Pie. Mother and I chose the pie while Bryan had the carrot cake.

The music was, of course, Irish – and we listened to that for a good hour and a half while eating. There were three ladies up on stage, one playing an base guitar, one playing a dulcimer, and the other playing either a violin or a banjo. The music was quite good – the singing, not so much. Still, mother really enjoyed it.

Eventually we walked her back to her room and said goodbye. It’s so hard to walk away from her each time I visit. She never wants you to go and always follows you, no matter how many times you tell her she needs to stay.

Here is her room, by the way. She has a lot of space, with pictures up on the wall and everything. She says she is happy there and does not want for anything more. I think Kelly is working on getting her a nice comfy chair, though. She will be able to take naps on it while looking out her window.

Our Pantry Re-Org

We did a major reorganization on our Pantry the other day. What a job that was!

First, we took everything out of the pantry and put it all in the kitchen – on the counters, on the floor, on the table, in the hallway, in the living room. I was amazed at how much stuff was in there!

Next I swept the floor twice and then hit it twice with the wet Swiffer, finishing it off with actually getting down on my knees and applying some good old Elbow Grease to some of the tougher stains.

After that, we tackled the shelving. We didn’t have any surface cleaners on hand, so we had to make do with Clorox Wipes. They were mostly just dusty from age (it had been over 7 years since the last thorough cleaning) but there were a few persistent spills of indeterminate origin.

Since the pantry really isn’t that big, only one person fits comfortably in there at a time. So while Bryan took on the shelving job, I got a trash bag and went through all the items in the kitchen, tossing out anything that was obvious trash and/or so completely out of date that it would be too risky to eat.

Then came the task of deciding what items we really did not need anymore that could either be tossed out or sold at our garage sale that we’re planning to hold this summer. We managed to haul out three trash bags of trash and two of “stuff” we didn’t want!

Finally came the monumental task of putting all that stuff back in the pantry in some sort of organized manner. I have to admit, I was completely overwhelmed. But between the two of us we eventually got the job done.

WooHoo!