Catching Up

~erica

I feel bad that the only blogging I've done lately is Saturday Confessions with Melissa at A Familiar Path, I've been taking pictures and we've been doing stuff but it hasn't made it on here. I've got our homeschool plan just about put together, Tovah and I have molded hard boiled eggs, I promised Ryan a Safeco Field post, but I just haven't gotten to them yet...

Arin had an orthodontist appointment just up the street from the spray fountain. It was one of the few really hot days we've had but only he and Tovah were interested in going and playing. I took them out for ice cream afterwards at Dairy Dans (their junior cones are about 8" high)

We went to hear a Mariachi band at the library on Tuesday, it sprinkled a bit but not enough to be a problem. They were really good and I guess several of them are big names in the music scene (my dad knows of the fiddle player and said if he'd known who was going to be there he would have come with us). Rush's friend has been staying with us this week, his family moved to New Mexico last fall.

Monday we went on the Steam Train. It's always a fun trip. I set up a late field trip for the local homeschoolers, I would have needed 60 to meet the minimum riders for the train but we were on with 2 other groups and didn't need a minimum. We had 122! I spent most of the hour plus trip catching up with people I haven't seen in several years and also putting faces to email addresses from the loop.

This is Arin's lightsaber in the dark. I ran upstairs and read a quick tutorial on taking fireworks pictures while Ryan and the kids set them up on the 4th. My dad found his tripod for me, I took a lot of shots pointed in the wrong direction as I couldn't see through my view finder exactly where I was pointed.

The neighbor's mortars above the field behind us.

Ryan bought a ton of sparklers but only Tovah wanted to do them. We have the leftovers for New Year's.

Saturday Confessions- July 10

~erica

1) I thought about writing my confessions yesterday but ran out of daylight (and energy). I spent my afternoon and evening at the church cooking and serving dinner for 75 bike riders. Each year 10,000 riders ride the STP from Seattle to Portland. A majority of them spend the night in Lewis County, and as we don't have that many hotel rooms available, many churches and families host riders. We have hosted several times as a fundraiser for Young Life but the last 2 years I've had to help out at church so we haven't hosted.

Grandma & Grandpa Hendrickson

2) I've scanned many of the family pictures that Grandma Hendrickson had. I wish I had taken the time to do it while she was still alive so that I could have talked to her about the who and where of many pictures.

Grandma Hendrickson with her parents and younger sisters in 1932

3) Grandma and I were working on her scrapbook of her 80th birthday party. I was supposed to go over and journal the book for her as she didn't feel up to all the writing, it's been on my To Do List for the past 4 years and I never made the time to do it. Now I have the album but no journalling in it, I can remember some of the stories she told me as we put it together but I'll always regret not finishing it with her.

Grandma Hendrickson with her parents and younger sister, Bernice

4) Rush's friend, Lincoln, is visiting from Albequerque. He brought XBox games and 2 seasons of Big Bang Theory, we're not getting anything else done.

Grandma with Taryn in 1994, about 2weeks before Taryn died (the night before we left for Disneyland)

5) Tovah hadn't changed her earrings since about halfway through the fastpitch season, yesterday she tried to change them and needed some help getting them off. Her earlobes had grown over the backs! She had lost an earring during a game so she had pushed the backs as far up the post as possible. 10 minutes later; after much heavy breathing, tears, and nausea on my part; I was able to pull them out of her skin and get the bleeding stopped. We had to find her some little drop earrings to maintain the holes until the skin heals enough to wear posts with backs again. I couldn't find what I wanted at Walmart so we bought some fishhook-style wires and cross charms. I'm afraid we might have started a new hobby.

6) I feel bad that the only blog posts I've taken time to write these past few weeks are Saturday Confessions

I'm starting the Bible in 90 Days at Moms Toolbox this week. I'm really looking forward to it. Arin and Tovah read the Bible this past year but I have to admit I've never actually read it cover to cover (that would be Confession #7)

Happy 4th of July!

~erica



Red Skelton explains the Pledge of Allegiance

My favorite Schoolhouse Rock song when I was a kid

Saturday Confessions- July 3 (okay, it's now the 4th)

~erica

I'm two days late for Saturday Confessions at A Familiar Path but that's on par for the week

We had VBS this past week. I came home every day and took a nap. I'd try to stay awake and get something done but I'd lay on the bed for a minute and 2 hours later wake up groggy and ucky feeling.

Thursday I caught the kids' "allergies" and now am sniffling, sneezing, and have a scratchy throat.

I didn't take a single picture all week. I took my camera to VBS on Monday but never took it out of the case. My sister-in-law got a picture of Tovah and her daughter at Grandma's service on Friday and put it on Facebook.  I've never saved a picture off of FB before so we'll see how it turns out.

Friday I didn't get a nap. We got VBS torn down, had less than an hour to run to a friend's house to shower and change clothes, then back to the church for the service. Jonah slept on my lap the entire service. Afterwards, friends from Seattle and Nathan came back to the house for dinner and to wait for I-5 traffic to clear.

Friday night I woke up after two and a half hours of sleep and couldn't go back to sleep, I finally gave up and came downstairs with my laptop until Ryan got up to go to work. Then I crawled back in bed with my Kindle and finished my book until almost 7. I slept til 10 when Tovah woke me about her bagels, fell back asleep at 11, and slept until 2.

Last night I tried to make Biscuits and Gravy but they weren't edible, I grabbed Baking Soda instead of Baking Powder and didn't realize until it was well mixed in. And my gravy didn't thicken. Ryan made pancakes when he got home.

This week I have to accomplish something since I've got nothing to show for 4 weeks of summer break. Rush drives three mornings this week so we have to get up and out the door.

Resting in Peace

~erica

Nathan with Great-Grandma Hendrickson the day he came home from Afghanistan in March

Ryan's Grandma Hendrickson died this morning at 91 years of age. She loved the Lord and had a good life; outliving her husband, her sisters, and 2 great-grandchildren. She'd been relatively healthy for all these years as well. Recently they found a mass near her pancreas (but not pancreatic) and another one on her back. She had opted for no treatment, just palliative care at home. As I sat down to write this morning she was failing and I didn't know how to pray. Did I pray that she rallies or did I pray that her passing was peaceful and mercifully quick? All I could pray was "thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven."

Yesterday was her only bad day, she was weak and in a lot of pain. The pain was allowed to overwhelm her and it took a long time to get it back under control. Ryan's cousin spent the night with her and texted me updates every hour on the hour, it was like having a newborn. She ended up spending the entire night sitting next to Grandma watching her breathe. This morning she reported that Grandma was sleeping comfortably. I got a panicked text about 9 that her fingers were turning blue and I called Shar to ask if she needed me to come. We got out of the house as quickly as we could, I was making arrangements for the kids while we went out the door. 2 minutes from her house we got the text that she was gone. She went peacefully in her blue recliner, where Ryan promised her she could die. She went about 40 minutes before a hospital bed was due to be delivered (she adamantly did not want to have a hospital bed- they made her hurt).

I've spent all day with the family and working to tie up loose ends. Ryan's clinical schedule doesn't allow for time off for these circumstances so it's falling to me, Nathan came down and he's stepping up in his dad's stead to "make things right." I'm proud of him, he has Ryan's empathy and seems to be developing my attention to details. I'm proud of all the kids, they spent a long and stressful day peacefully, without adding further stress. Rush hung out with the other cousins, Arin's friend skipped school to be with him and they helped with VBS prep for next week, Tovah spent the day in the church daycare, and Jonah & Isaac played video games in a Sunday School room. Rush was good about checking on them and taking them lunch and making sure they were okay. The only issue of the day was Isaac's tooth, it broke while he was eating a jawbreaker, the problem is our dentist is out on jury duty the whole week...   

We don't know when the services will be. The family will be meeting with the pastor tomorrow.

Saturday Confessions- June 18

~erica

1) We are on our second day of day shift and Ryan overslept. I Hate dayshift! I'm tempted to make a paper chain so that we know when we are close to being done, but I think that might be too childish.

2) I've had a whole week of summer vacation and have nothing to show for it- I don't feel relaxed or rejuvenated or even that I've accomplished anything.

3) Tovah and I tagged along with the boys when they went to Seattle to see Super 8. Our friend, MaryLinda, met us and we had a girls' day. We rode the Monorail, ate at the Westlake food court, went to Old Navy, wandered around Pike Place Market, then back to the Center to meet the guys. MaryLinda says my kids are too well trained. Tovah found a seat and turned around and smiled just as I got my camera out of the bag.

4) We did a lot of shopping, at least for me. Tovah's shoes hurt so we got her 2 new pairs of flip flops at Old Navy, I got 4 more macaroons from Le Panier, we found curry ketchup at the Bavarian Meat Market, got Tovah sunglasses and a purse at Claire's, and candy at that little shop where you pay way too much money for a quarter pound of candy.

5) Tovah and Rush are registered for Public School. Right now most of my angst is about what people are going to think.

6) Ryan took an almost 30% cut in pay this summer as well as doubled his gas budget for clinicals. His car will be gone every day so that means I have to take my van any time we need/ want to go anywhere. I think this is going to be a long summer. I'm trying to make the best of it- we have projects to get done and Rush has half his Algebra book to do. I'm trying to cut the grocery budget by eating what's in the deep freeze and pantry, using coupons, and shopping deals. I got butter, flour, and sugar for baking. I may gain a ton of weight!

7) I hate dayshift, did I mention that?

8) Rush and Arin are asking for razors and I'm trying to ignore them. I'm just not ready for this.

9) The Toothfairy seems to have boycotted our house. Tovah and Jonah just threw their teeth away and asked for their money since she's so unreliable.



I'm linking to:

Saturday Confessions

Corydalis scoulerii Scouler's Corydalis

1) I was going to write a Saturday Confessions post 2 weeks ago when I was trying to do everything except what I was supposed to be doing. But Blogger wouldn't let me load our page on the laptop and I didn't feel like moving my pictures to the desktop.

Geum macrophyllum Large-leaved avens

2) I need to change my blog header. Big changes are happening and I'm not ready to deal with them yet but I do need to change the header. The last time I did it I think I got lucky and did it right the first umteenth time.

This wasn't one we had to identify but it was really cool. I think it's a Colt's Foot Petasites palmatus

3) I completed 18 credits this quarter and my children are all still alive. I did not get a 4.0 which bothers me more than I want to admit.

Trillium ovatum western Trillium

4) I got a 3.8 in Health and Fitness. The only C I got in high school was in Freshman PE. Do I see a trend here?

Dodecatheon hendersonii broadleaf shooting star

5) My house is a disaster! The past two weeks the kids have done their chores but I haven't done mine. Ryan and I have dressed out of a laundry basket in the family room. I told the kids if we believed in Evolution it would only take a spark for new life to grow out of the primordial ooze that was living in the bathroom.

Camassia quamash common camas

6) We are sending Tovah and Rush to public school in the fall. I'm trying not to let the perfect homeschool mom syndrome get to me...



Orchid- I think its a western coralroot Corallorhiza maculata ssp. mertensiana. They are cool but don't smell good and aren't very impressive except in their rarity. I'm really jealous of Marsha right now, she gets to spend the next year or so on Guam and they have sunshine, orchids, plumeria, sunshine, sand, sunshine...

 7) I got an easy A in Native Plants, it was lots of memorization of latin names.

Vaccinium ovatum Evergreen huckleberry

8) My plan for this weekend was to stay in my pajamas and watch DVDs and do absolutely nothing. I am finding that I really don't do that very well. I've updated my calendar, recycled all the papers out of my school notebook, put away baseball gear, folded laundry, cleaned the toilet (this was a kill or be killed situation), and taken 2 naps while watching 4 episodes of Midsommer Murder. We went to a birthday party last night because we had to go to town to return the movie I forgot to turn in earlier. Rush went to graduation this afternoon and we're going to another graduation tomorrow. Then we'll do nothing...

9) The kids have watched more Dr. Who the past 3 weekends. I've been too busy to find them alternative activities to TV watching

10) This is Ryan's last weekend working nights and I'm going to miss my quiet time while he sleeps and having the bed/ TV all to myself.