Back in the Saddle

After the Butte debacle, I decided that I needed to get serious.

This morning I determined that I was going to log some miles on my bike.

First ride of the season.

I biked about 6 miles in 35 minutes.

It felt good to be out and riding again.

It took a minute to get into it and my hands were frozen by the time I was done.

It's about 42 degrees outside and windy.

But TOTALLY worth it! 

Friday Adventures

We picked Kenna up from school and decided to hike the Butte.

This was the first hike of the season.

It was bad.

I'm terribly out shape.

The wind was blowing so hard and we froze our buttes off! 

We actually didn't even go all the way to the top because we were so cold and it was taking me so long.

Anyway, I have got to get back in shape.

Kenna, Esther and I are planning to do Lost Lake this summer and that will require more than I currently am.

Oiy!

Also, when I got into bed the sun was shining full force through my window. 

It was 910 pm.

I'm so glad the sun is back.

I really missed it! 

 

Lettuce, Lake and Lost Testimonies

This evening we went to check out the progress on the lake thawing.

It is trying.

Bri decided that she wanted to try and ride in the kayak on the top about 6 inches of water.

That didn't work out so well.

It was funny to watch though.

We also harvested and bagged the first lettuce of the season.

I am delivering it tomorrow.

Let the season begin.

I also had conversations with a family member that mentioned how another family member was telling them that the LDS church was a cult and that Joseph Smith was not a prophet.

We talked for sometime about this.

The other person, even though they have never been through the temple, was attacking the temple ceremony.

As we visited and I tried to help correct outright lies I thought about my journey to here.

I was born into the LDS church.

 My parents were baptized earlier and sealed in the temple to each other before I was born. 

I was, what is called, born in the covenant.

My conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ has been over the course of many, many years though.

I not only believe that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but know it.

I know it because of the countless ways it has been an answer to my prayers and how God has used it to bless my life.

There is so much hope and happiness in the doctrine's of the Atonement of Christ and repentance.

I find great comfort in God's pan of salvation that families can be together forever.

My testimony hasn't come from one single event.

It has come over the last 43 years.

It has come from daily prayer.

It has come from daily study of the words of prophets and the scriptures.

It has come from the gift of repentance.

It has come through the Holy Ghost which is my privilege to have.

I have several family members who have lost the truth they once knew.

I believe that a loving and kind Heavenly Father is holding their testimonies in His hands waiting until the day when He can give them back to them.

For now, they seek for lasting happiness in places they will never, ever find it. 

I am grateful to know that happiness can be found though.

There are those, including myself, who feel the joy that comes from the teachings found in the LDS church every single day. 

Every good thing I have in my life has come to me because of my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Kali girl

Kali is getting married and we got to go to her bridal shower tonight.

She is the first of my seminary kids getting married- that I know of.

I LOVE this girl!

She is funny and smart and spiritual.

I had (not so) secretly wished she would marry Dallin, but that is not going to happen. 

I am so excited for her though.

She is getting married in the Anchorage temple on Saturday. 

 

Rhubarb and Love

Yesterday we were outside working and moving some stuff around to find places for Matt's stuff from his shop.
Did I forget to announce that big thing that was happening?

Well, Matt quit his job to be a full time farmer!!!
 

How is that for a big thing?
We are cleaning out his shop since he is closing down.
This is a big change for our family and some adjustments are going to be necessary.
Some might be uncomfortable- like foregoing my hobby of buying stuff on Amazon.
While others will be welcomed- like Matt being home a lot more.
While we were making room for his tools he noticed that the rhubarb was up!

I love when the rhubarb comes up.

It's on the south facing wall of the greenhouse and it is the sign that winter is really, truly over.

I went and removed all the debris from around all the plants so they could get full sunlight.

I am so excited for this planting season.

We have so much growing already.

The greenhouse is truly green right now.

I envision some strawberry rhubarb crisp in my near future!

Also the other night, I got out of the shower to find every living soul that lives in this house on my bed.

I love these people!
And some of the animals.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

Sometime last year I bought several kites from Amazon.

I was so excited to fly them with the kids but the weather never seemed to cooperate and then the snow flew.

Today while we were relaxing on the couches after church I heard my wind chime singing away and decided that Corban and I needed to try out the kites.

We invited the girls but they didn't want to come.

It was the first time Corban ever flew a kite.

He loved it! 

He didn't want to come back in the house.

 

Celebrating Esther!

This weekend myself and a few ladies celebrated our friend Esther.

It was her birthday and we all took off to Girdwood for some time together.

We stayed at Alyeska.

We hiked to Virgin Creek Falls.

We road the tram to the top of the mountain.

We ate at Double Musky Inn.

We also ate at The Bore Tide Deli.

We had a candle that could have lit the hotel room on fire.

It sang Happy Birthday.

We couldn't figure out how to turn it off so we put it in a potted plant in the hall.

We laughed and laughed.

We played in the pool and hot tub.

We ate chocolate and cheesecake.

We went to Whittier.

We rode through the tunnel.

We stopped at the abandoned building there.

We saw tons of Dall sheep on the drive home.

It was a really great weekend.

I love those women!

Just living

This week the days have been filled with greenhouse time, laundry, dishes, using my new vacuum to get the floors cleaner, and Afton time.

My friend, Ashley came by with her three kiddos on Tuesday and hung out for a few hours.

Makenna and I watched Relative Race season two together.

Corban and I caught up on The Flash together.

Matt came home last night from being in Kodiak for almost two weeks working. 

I did research on my ancestor Joseph Dunn and his family. 

I found some sad stuff but got a lot of information added.

I harvested some lettuce, kale and mustard greens and had a beautiful salad the other day.

The sun only hid its face once this week.

Lake Hale dried up on Tuesday. 

Life is just good!

 

 I've got some great fun planned for the weekend.

Canoe Time

This morning, after Brittan's late night report, I took a walk down the driveway to see the progress.

Lake Hale has arrived and in force!

It is huge and there is still a ton of snow that needs to melt.

Corban dragged Matt's canoe down and took Jamie for a little boating trip in the icy water.

We actually parked our cars over at the neighbors house and are walking through the woods to get home and to the cars because I am afraid we won't be able to get out otherwise.  

Even though it is a bit inconvenient, I kind of really love it!

 Then we spent the rest of the evening on the back porch before we had to take Jamie home.

Her and Corban did science projects and the girls and I just enjoyed the sunlight. 

 

Sun for Days!

We've pretty much had sun all week long and it has been glorious! 

Today we ran and picked up Jamie for a sleepover. 

Makenna did our makeup tonight.

Mine is a lot less than Jamies! 

I love that little girl so much.

All the snow is completely off the back porch so we sat out there and enjoyed the beautiful evening. 

Today was also Brittan's 19th birthday.

Somehow I didn't get any pictures of her.

She was gone for most of the day. 

 

Playing in the Dirt

Today I spent the entire day in the greenhouse.

It was glorious! 

I prepared beds, planted lettuce, beets, and cabbages.

I watered and then watered again.

I moved wood.

I cleaned up old plants and took them outside.

I re-potted some cucumbers.

I felt the fresh dirt squish between my toes.

The sun was shining all day long so it was over 80 in the greenhouse the entire time.

I love that, even though there is still about a foot snow outside, I can enjoy spring in the greenhouse.

It was absolutely perfect!

 

Movie break

This afternoon we needed a break. 

We hadn't seen Black Panther yet and needed to before we go and see Avengers Infinity War.

We are knd of Marvel geeks.

It was such a good movie and good company.

We ate tons of popcorn and just relaxed from the stresses of life for a bit. 

Good times! 

It was a Good Day!

The weather is finally starting to behave!

I spent some time in the greenhouse today (I'll be doing that a lot more now).

It was so warm in there.

I planted arugula and bok choi into the beds and decided it was time to take off my boots and get my toes in the dirt.

I love that feeling!

The feeling I didn't love was trying to get my rubber boots back on after I was done and had rinsed off my feet.

That didn't go so well.

I ended up with my boots half way on walking back to the house.

I can't keep them off outside the greenhouse because we still have about a foot of snow.

However, it is supposed to be in the 50's all week which means it will be gone soon. 

What should show up pretty quickly is Lake Hale though. 

Kenna and I took a walk and saw it beginning to form.

 The power was off for about 5 hours last night.

When I called the electric company they said it had to do with a bird.

A bird.

That must've been one big bird!

We ended up spending the night at Esther's house. 

I am grateful for fun friends who are so willing to help.

Matt's in Kodiak for two weeks.

But spring is happening and I have a ton of work to do in the greenhouse. 

Greenhouse Update!

Matt and I worked in the greenhouse this morning for hours and hours. 

It was beautiful and warm in there. 

We planted curly kale and napa cabbage plants in the ground. 

It feels a little risky but I think they will be okay. 

It is supposed to be in the 50's all week so I think they will be fine. 

I'm excited for this growing season. 

Here are some plant pictures for update:

Afterward the girls and I went to a funeral for Scott Allred and then went out with some girlfriends to dinner and saw Mary Poppins at the theatre.

It was a good day!

Spring is coming.

It doesn't look like spring outside but I can smell spring.

It will come.

It's times like this that drive me crazy but the fun thing right now is that we have a greenhouse FULL of plants. 

I think we will be able to be selling lettuce in about a week and a half to two weeks.

We are that close!

 

Planetarium

Today Corb and I went with Rissa and her homeschool group to the planetarium. 

It was really, really cool. 

I actually learned a lot of things about the planets in our solar system that I did not know. 

Ruby sat by me and loudly voiced her displeasure of the event. 

She had me laughing so many times. 

She was angry that the presenter wasn't pronouncing Uranus the way she thought it should be pronounced.

She kept telling me she was bored.

And at one point she said, "Is this supposed to be educational or give me nightmares? Because it's giving me nightmares!"

I love that girl!

Afterward we went and ate at Taco King and then the kids played for a little while longer.

It was a good day to spend some time together. 

 

Skipping

This girl!

She is amazing.

She has a reputation of being amazing.

People are drawn to her.

She's just awesome.

She skipped 7th grade.

Then today she got her acceptance letter for the Matsu Middle College.

She tested in and will be skipping 11th and 12th grades as well.

She starts college in the fall.

I am so grateful for her and her example.

General Conference Day Two

Today we experienced another beautiful day of sun.

It was a perfect day to celebrate Easter. 

We listened to conference this morning.

It was incredible.

This conference there were so many amazing changes.

They put both the Elders Quorum and High Priest Group together and are no longer have them separate.

They got rid of Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching and now have a new program called Ministering.

The new prophet was sustained.

Two new apostles were called- Elders Gong and Soares.

A TON of seventies were called. 

Seven new temples were announced in Argentina, India, Nicaragua, Philippines, Utah, Virginia, and Russia!

These are amazing times. 

Pres. Nelson spoke about personal revelation.

It was incredibly powerful and makes me want to act.

There were so many references to our work to usher in the Second Coming that I lost count.

There was a lot about revelation and the Holy Ghost.

Pres. Oaks talked about small and simple things.

I need to make some small and simple changes so that I can enjoy big blessings. 

After conference was over we ate our traditional Jerusalem dinner.

It was just Matt and I and Corban, Makenna and Brittan.

Sam and her family decided not to come.

That makes me sad, but it's okay.