Idaho Snow, Spring at Gramsie's!

This is the snow that was yet covering Marvel Hill two weeks ago.


















This is Gramsie's yard:-) Her flowering magnolias and blooming "Grandie" garden!

Precious Times

Friday we drove our favorite I-5 stretch between Portland Oregon and our California home. It was the most beautiful day for driving; the view starting with Mount St. Helen's, and ending with a fully snow-clad Mount Shasta at dusk. If I hadn't been the one driving, I would have taken some pictures (and to be fair, AJ would have taken some if I hadn't packed the camera in the duffel which was later packed in the farthest regions of tha van.)
We arrived in town after dark but it's really truly Spring here (the kind with GREEN grass, and flowers) and we could roll the windows down and take in the cool air scented by Almond blossoms and new oat grass. Yes, it was very hard to take! ;-)

We were able to join my brother Charlie and his family for dinner at their place yesterday evening, and that was a pleasure I will enjoy for some time to come! I hope some of you may meet Charlie and Hannah one of these days.
I'll call this post good with some pictures from our time with them.

Love to you,
me

I Am Alive...

And I tried to post tonight, but am having a sloooooooow computer, and it's not getting all my pictures up.
Since it is now "tomorrow" I should probably go to bed and fool with it tomorrow (I mean when it's daylight again).
Thank you for your prayers. I can't wait to get back in to the swing of blogging and posting lots of pictures!

Love,
me

A Letter

Dear Grace, Jenny, Lauri, Courtney, and anyone else who would wish to know...

We are currently resting in Battleground Washington (just over the river from Portland Or.). I can't tell you how good it felt to be on the road, and I wish I had taken a picture of the piles that AJ somehow managed to fit into our van. It was truly impressive! We left slowly on the day we intended, although not until noon, we did leave peacefully and with grateful, happy hearts:-)

We made it to Idaho and stayed with our precious new neighbors for several days. That was a lot of fun, and I am sure we broke each other in in that short time! There was quite a bit of snow on the ground yet, though it was melting steadily creating mud and more mud. We got to pile all thirteen of us and a dog into their suburban and drive up to Marvel Hill. There was a good two feet of snow on the ground (and deck) there, and no mice or water in the house. Everything was as we left it, and frankly I was tempted to stay excepting the outhouse issue...

Sadly there was not enough time to visit other loved ones in the area since we were on a mission. Once completed, we headed southward towards our native land and are now in route to California. Tomorrow we make the last leg of our journey for a lengthier rest with beloved family and friends, and perhaps the completion of some sewing projects I want to finish. I hope. Maybe.

I miss you dear ladies and am so delighted to get your emails and read your blogs! I miss you, my family, at home and can't wait to see you! And to each of my friends on the road, what a pleasure and privilege to visit with YOU, and I can't thank you enough for your gracious and generous hospitality!

All my heart,
Analene

Neck-Deep in Piles

Well... there are still piles.
Big surprise I know.
I DID make progress today, but it is a little hard to tell since my children had their own piles going (theirs weren't nearly as helpful as I would have liked, but they did look fun!).

Anyway, we are (in effect) moving our things out of here (Colorado, where AJ's job is located) to
their permanent home at Marvel Hill.
We are still Gypsies as far as I can tell, but we are attempting to set up camp in Idaho where we might one day in the future reside.
As I type, I hear talk of mud, texture, paint, and carpet in the two upstairs rooms, and a bookcase in the living room! I'm pretty excited about that:-) That means we can set up beds when we get there - REAL beds. The kind that are mattresses on a frame! (remember we are gypsies. How did you think Gypsies slept?)

Tomorrow is the big day of finishing off the piles and packing them into the van (and I do mean pack!). Gathering the last minute grocery items to make traveling that much more pleasant; and leaving as little mess for Uncle Wyatt as we possibly can. Add to that a fair bit of hair-pulling (me pulling my own hair) because there is just too much to do, followed finally by a few hours of sleep and managing to leave anyway.

It really IS amazing how everything comes together somehow (probably miraculously) and you get out the door. With all the children, and just enough good will to last for the next twenty-one hours of driving!

Pray for me if you think of it:-)

Knowing When To Stop

Piles everywhere.
So much so, that when cleaning the kitchen before dinner tonight, I actually got to the part where you wipe down the counters.

We are packing up our belongings for the haul to Marvel Hill and a visit home to California. There is far too much to accomplish before leaving (whenever that may be), especially if we think we might want to mop the kitchen before we leave... That is at the bottom of my list, but on the list all the same.

So for the last few days, the only way to get anything done between meals, naps, school,errands, and more meals, is to make piles.

There's a pile for sewing stuff, a pile for snow gear, a pile for books and school supplies, a pile at the bottom of the stairs, a pile a the top of the stairs, a pile under the kitchen counter, a pile covering my desk, a pile to trip over wherever in the house you may choose to tread.
There are a LOT of piles, and piles in this application wear me out! Just when I get to the part of my day when the children are tucked into bed and being still, the house is quiet, and the most demanding chores done, THAT is when there is time to work on refining those piles.

Alas... who has the energy for that at nine O' clock pm!! Not me. Not now anyway. I am wiped out. As I told my gracious brother-in-law (whose house we share)
..........................................................................................................................................................................
" Sometimes I have to let the chores go, so I can get to the other important things (or people - such as my children). Things like the dishes and dirty counter tops are always there. They always will be."
..........................................................................................................................................................................
(And that's at least until my helpers are taking more of the responsibility than they are at present)














Do you know what I did this evening? I sat down with my littlest bug and played at the doll house with her! That's one of those things you have to stop for once in a while. Just STOP. So that's what I did. I stopped. I ignored the piles, making big plans for all that I will surely accomplish tomorrow... But even tomorrow, if it is necessary I will let go of the chores, let go of the perceived obligations for "school" time, let go of my uptight-ness, and stop.
Take a deep breath, and with the Lord's wisdom, change gears.

For now, I must stop this staying up late in front of the computer and go to bed. Being ever so careful not to trip over any of my piles on the way:-)

What Have We Here?

PINK Snowshoes?

Now WHO could those be for?

Even better... guess who spotted them in Sportsman's Warehouse?

"Ooooh DAD! Look at THOSE! PINK Snowshoes!!!" (I probably could have done to add a few more exclamation points)

So WHAT did Dad do? He went right over and looked at the price tag, discovered that these sweet little things were marked down to half the original price, and were the last pair...

Then he promptly displayed his weakness for pink by putting them into the cart!

No kidding, that's just how it happened, only... the pink he has a weakness for, isn't the color of the straps on the snowshoes! edited on 3/16/09 to clarify: (... but the pleading eyes of a pink-clad, dimple faced little girl, who could resist?)

Note: For those of you visiting from DL, there is no innuendo intended here. I apologize for naively using the word pink to describe my daughter who loves that color. Any perverted impressions you gathered are purely your own invention.
On a side, I see that some of you think I am a walking contradiction. I hope not. The Jesus I know has seen past my sin to love me in spite of my issues, and loved me enough to pull me out of that mire.

Religion? No.
Jesus? Yes!
And He loves you too... pink or no pink. That's the truth!

Apples...

It was apples tonight. We dipped them in a combination of pineapple and lemon juice first. I'll let you know if they turned out!
We also made ready some more jerky meat - it's marinating tonight, and I actually made the marinade from scratch: Soy sauce, lots of fresh garlic, maple syrup, and apricot jam. I'll let you know how that one comes out too:-)

AJ and the kiddos played with the new vacuum packer and much fun was had by all! Boy! I will say again, how LITTLE the food looks once dried! Especially vacuum sealed!
I guess I didn't take pictures, but maybe in the next day or two.

Oh! I almost forgot... I got some gifts from my honey tonight. The children helped him wrap them, and at dinner they sang "Happy Birthday" to me (even though it is NOT my birthday) - quite fun!
When on his travels last week he went to Barnes and Noble. This is what he bought me:-)
And... Viola!













Some really great resources, and that top one has some beautiful hand-drawn artwork of various fruits and vegetables in it. It's worth opening just for the eye pleasure!

Thanks my Darlin'!! Thanks for thinking of me:-)

A Happy Me!

OH! I am SO THANKFUL! I am feeling a little bit like my normal self today! (Tired but not ill)
AJ arrived home last night, and it must have been a tonic. He worked from home today and it is just too wonderful for words to have him within close proximity:-)

Now, to blow all your socks off, I managed to putter away on a couple projects while I was sick. I can't tell you how... I just did. Some combination of whisking into the kitchen in a moment of feeling tolerable, and whisking back out at the first sign of feeling faint. I'm sure the projects would have been completed faster in non-sick time, but I really wanted to accomplish something (ANYTHING) while AJ was out of town.

So... we dehydrated some carrots. Zachary scrubbed down about ten pounds of carrots, and I sliced them, following up with a five minute blanch (this is all new to me). Supposedly blanching some vegetables (the ones with a longer cooking time) stops the enzyme action that causes loss of flavor, and preserves color amongst other things.
We dried ours overnight at 125 degrees Fahrenheit.






































There is quite a lot of scrubbing, slicing, blanching, and placing on trays for ten pounds of carrots.
Do you know what ten pounds dehydrated to?

This:














And this is a gallon Zip Lock bag. I am sure there can't be one pound in here!



















The first lesson I learned:

Dehydrating is one of the most
UN-rewarding looking accomplishments I have tried yet!

Lesson 2:

Those little guys will expand,
so don't go putting a cup of dried carrots in your vegetable soup
- it might equal five or seven pounds of carrots in the end!

Lesson 3:

Buying a pound of dried vegetables doesn't look so expensive anymore.
Seven dollars for 1 lb. of dried carrot
seems pretty darn reasonable to me! (Azure Standard)

After the carrots, it was time to try something else. Jerky.
Pick a lean piece of meat, freeze partially making it easier to slice in uniform size, and marinate in some concoction overnight.
Blot each piece so it is not dripping, place on trays and dry for roughly eight hours at 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

I absolutely can't believe it, but it actually turned out! I cheated on the marinade and bought something non toxic off the store shelf, but next time I'll make my own.
The meat didn't shrink up as much as the vegetables, and AJ says it's the best jerky he's tasted!
So good. Now I need to vacuum pack it before it all disappears!
















So those were the triumphs of Momma bug this weekend even amidst feeling awful.
It is true that we are also sprouting alfalfa seeds which are slowly making their debut.
And it is also true that I tried making bread, and it was a failure. It didn't' rise, that's how I know it was a failure. Some people call their bread similar in weight to a brick, but a brick would have been light compared to the loaf this would have made if I had tried to bake it. Thankfully I was smart enough to dump it before wasting time trying to fix what was irreparable.
I will try again. Really I will! ;-)

For now I am pretty satisfied with my dehydrating education. FYI, I used a book called
"Preserve It Naturally" which was very helpful and informative.
And my Honey is home. So all in all, I couldn't possibly be happier!

I Feel Like A Foreigner...

This is not the hard life. I don't know why it feels so hard tonight.
Emotional, yes. Still sick, yes. But tonight I miss something.
I miss my husband.
I also really miss my mom.
But what I think I am missing the most, is the home I was created for.
The one where Jesus lives.
That's what I'm missing.

Tonight I feel it in my heart, in my stomach, in my aches, in my emotions...
I don't belong here. I mean, this earth has it's real nice moments, but it's not the same.
You know? I've never been to that home I miss, yet I feel like I know it! How else could I be missing it? Don't you have to know something to miss it? At least have it planted in the deepest longings of your heart?

I'm glad for the missing. As painful as it is, it reminds me that this place is not my permanent home, and I'm bound for someplace worth living forever!

Please pray for the Adamis family and baby Mia Amore. All my heart goes out to them in these difficult days, and possibly the days to come.