Birthday Boy

The Sunday before Makenzie left for Missouri, we celebrated Seth's 15th birthday.

Today is his actual birthday, and he requested that all of his family wear "family colors" which meant he wanted each person to wear his or her favorite color -- Seth, Dad, Meema, Uncle Darryl, and Gavin wore blue; Makenzie and Luke wore green; Aunt Amanda and Makayla wore pink; Joel, Kannika, and I wore purple; Pop Pop wore brown; and Uncle Richard wore red.  He also requested no pony tails (although he told Joel that he liked HIS pony tail, so I guess he meant all the girls had to wear their hair down -- he calls it "down hair").

When Dad and Luke got home from running, we had pizza, peanut butter chip cookies, and a game of Scooby Doo Bingo.  Joel won, but Seth doesn't really accept anyone else winning his game, so he got second place which meant he won.  Down syndrome logic obviously is the correct logic on Seth's birthday!

 

Our Princess Left Us Again

 

Friday evening, we had a family dinner to celebrate Makenzie and her next step in her adult life.  She will be returning to Barnabas Prep as an Intern Supervisor.  There are two girls who graduated from Prep last year who want to return in the intern program this year.  Makenzie will be helping them with their jobs, both on and off the Barnabas campus, and helping them with their independent living skills.

After dinner, we took Makenzie to the airport.  Good-byes are the worst!

This year, Makenzie is living in her own room.  There is a shared living room area one floor above her.  She arrived at Prep a week before she will start her training so that she can get all settled.

Here in Alaska, the summer is coming to a close.  Jason had his first day back to a normal schedule with the first day of teacher training.  Seth and I are taking this week off for his birthday, and then his 9th grade year will start next Monday.  Joel ordered his books for this next term of Moody Online and is continuing to work full-time as a chauffeur for the elderly and people with disabilities, mostly transporting people home from dialysis.  Luke will have his last first day of school next Monday, so he's enjoying his last week of summer break.  We have fireweed growing in our back yard this year to remind us how close we are to the end of warm, sunny days.

Flowers, Thunder, and Sunset!

A friend and I walked to the Botanical Garden and got to see some BEAUTIFUL flowers!  A little while after I got home, the rain started and brought thunder!!  I've lived in Alaska now for twenty-four years and have never heard thunder as often as I have this summer.  It wasn't the huge, house-shaking, scary kind of thunder followed by giant bolts of lightning, so I LOVED it!!  In between rain showers, the sunset made the sky gorgeous!  Lots of exclamation points today for the amazing artistry of God's creation!

 

The Last Month of Summer

We have enjoyed having some sunny days this summer, especially with our new little covered section of the deck!  Jason put on some special waterproof tape across the seam and gutters on the sides, so now we're down to just two leaks.  Hopefully we'll have all the leaks stopped before the end of summer.

Now that it's August, Seth is REALLY looking forward to his 15th birthday!  While he's been 14, everything has had to be in groups of four.  Four chicken nuggets for breakfast, four friends at a time, four homeschool activities, etc.  I talked him into moving his favorite number up to five today since it's his birthday month.

Speaking of a new month, Makenzie, Sandy, and I are going to try to join in the virtual book club #AffectionatelyAustenBookClub.  We're going to read one Jane Austen book every two months, starting with Pride and Prejudice.  Makenzie is reading my old set, Sandy is reading my giant anthology that a college professor gave me at graduation, and I'm reading this new set that just came in the mail today.  We're looking forward to reading (or re-reading) these beautiful novels!

The End of Monk

Makenzie and I started watching Monk on Prime Video back in May, I think.  Tonight we finished the last episode.  This is probably my all-time favorite tv show now.  Makenzie gets me to watch the best shows!  First, we watched Gilmore Girls, then Psych, and now Monk.  There are many shows that she watches that I would hate, but she picked three good ones for us to watch together!  What will she get me to watch next?

WARNING! Not gluten free!!

This is the super sad face of someone with celiac disease who thought she'd found a delicious gluten-free chicken pot pie only to find out three hours later that it definitely was NOT gluten free.  I'm pretty sure I was in such a hurry to get in and out of Walmart that I mistook the "product of Canada" emblem for the "certified gluten free" emblem.  That's one mistake I will NEVER make again!!

A Rainbow and a Cow

Last night, Seth looked out his window and yelled to me, "MOM!  Come look at the sky!  It's a rainbow!"  His speech has made so much progress over the last year.

When Seth is tired, he's VERY silly.  Last night, I had to video how funny silly he was.  Translation of the video I posted on youtube:  "Dude, I'm a cow!  Mooooo!"  LOL!!!

Seth's Favorite Game

One of Seth's favorite things to do is bounce a tennis ball and catch it in his net.  He's REALLY good at it, hardly ever misses.  Today, he pointed at the net and said, "See?!  Basket!  It's called spacketball!"  (Seth's version of "Basketball")

Sleepovers

While Jason and Luke were in Florida helping Rich do some work, Makenzie and I got to have sleepovers with Seth.  Seth is EXTRA cute and sweet when he's falling asleep and when he first wakes up.  He has never gone to sleep alone.  When he was first born, I kept him in a bassinet right next to my bed so that I would hear him wake up.  When he graduated to his crib, I stayed with him until he fell asleep (my computer was in his room).  When Joel got old enough to want his own room, Luke moved upstairs to share a room with Seth.  When Luke is out of town, Seth either sleeps in my bed with me or in his room with either Makenzie or me in Luke's bed.  I don't know what we're going to do when Luke goes to college!

Matchy Matchy

Two days in a row, Seth and I have matched.

Seth was super sweet today when I told him that I had a little headache.  He said that he would hug me so that my headache would be all better.

Trust and Rest

Don't fret.  Don't worry.  Our enemies who are protesting God and His Church will be cut down.

Easy to say, difficult to do.  We must trust in God, do good, be strengthened by God's faithfulness, enjoy our relationship with God and our time in His Word.

In order to commit our way to God, our way has to match up with His way.  THEN He will show that our enemies have been lying.

Rest and wait patiently for God to take care of everything.  Don't get upset about our enemies seeming to prevail.  Satan and his crowd SEEM to be winning because they're so loud, but what "seems to be" isn't always reality.

Definitely the hardest command in this Psalm is to not even be angry about all this.  My anger does no good.  It only does harm.

Jason hasn't publicly defended himself or denounced his attackers for their lies.  He has personally contacted them and tried to make things right.  Evildoers will be eliminated eventually, and true Christ followers will enjoy peace with God.  Right now, we have small glimpses of peace in the beauty of God's creation, in the harmony and support of friends and family, and in the hope of Heaven.  What these protesters have meant for evil, God will work out for good and for His glory.

I Choose Joy

Saturday, the local paper published a negative story about our school and church online. Today that story was printed in the physical newspaper. One friend texted me to let me know, and another friend called to make sure I was OK. I’m so thankful for the many people who care about us and know us well enough to know that the things printed online and in the paper are twisted versions of the truth or even flat out lies. Here’s the thing. There’s nothing we can do about people who say ugly things. But there is something we can do about our reactions to people who say ugly things. I’m choosing joy. I’m choosing to rely on God. He has always provided our needs, and I have faith that He always will. Whether that means staying in Alaska for the rest of our lives or moving somewhere else, I know God will take care of us. There are two songs that were sung at my church many times that encourage me right now and say exactly what I want my life to say to the whole world. BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD (https://youtu.be/du0il6d-DAk) and GLORY TO GOD (https://youtu.be/h64opCwLZCw). There are people who are trying to destroy our church, our Christian school, and our family’s life. They will not succeed! Even if Jason has to lose his job, they still don’t win. We will forgive them. We will move on. We will keep on singing praises to the name of our Lord and Savior! The enemy will never win!

Be kind?

This is one of the hardest parts of Scripture to obey! Get rid of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor (shouting), evil speaking, and malice? Be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving? God, do You see what people are doing and saying? Do You see how people are treating those who have sacrificed their lives to help them? I am failing right now at obeying this command, but I pray that God will help me do better.

Library Day

Makenzie and I went to the library Sunday!  The library building isn't open to the public, so we couldn't read in our favorite reading room, but we took a blanket to sit on the ground and enjoy the fountain, the flowers, and the breezy fresh air.  The sun was really bright, so I used my face mask as a sun blocker.  When the clouds rolled in, we decided to pack up and go home.  We realized when we stood up that we had laid the blanket on a ton of goose poop.  Luckily, we had put an old blanket down first and a better one on top.  We threw away the old one, and Meema gave us her leftover plastic 4th of July table covers to use as the bottom layer next time.  There's a small pond behind the library, and people always feed the geese (even though there are signs everywhere asking them not to feed the geese because it really ends up hurting the geese when people feed them).  The geese wander all over the library property, so there's poop EVERYWHERE (super gross!!!!!).  Besides the poop issue, though, we had a fabulously relaxing afternoon of reading and enjoying the beauty of an Alaska summer afternoon!

A Roof on the Deck

I have wanted to have a roof over our back deck for almost 15 years.  When new neighbors moved in next door, they built a roof over their back deck.  We had some extra pieces of wood, and the church was getting rid of some wood, so Jason gathered all that together along with the piece of metal roof that was left from re-roofing the house a few years ago.  Since Rich retired, he had a few extra hours to help, so now I have a roof over part of my deck.  It's the perfect size for my bench, a chair, and even a small table so that I can read or even play a board game outside no matter what the weather is.  I'm so thankful for Rich and Jason's hard work with Joel and Luke's help!!!  We have a 100% chance of rain in the forecast tomorrow, and I'm thrilled with that prediction!