Buddies

Eli and Evan are having great fun with their live-in buddies. Lyndakers are here for a few days again. I think the times when they stay at the guest house are some of the highlights of the boys' little lives. And these two are only 2/5 of the fun combination!

The bugs are back

Yes, they're back. And they're after me. I took this photo after I was working in the garden. My forehead was itchy, so I rubbed it with my sleeve and noticed a blood smear on my sleeve. We know how much head wounds bleed, so you can imagine the troubles I had with this one. :) What you can't see from the picture, is that it was all swollen too. Okay, I don't think I'm getting as much sympathy as I was hoping for. Let me just remind you that black flies take a bite out of you and that's why you bleed!

Anyway, I decided to try the new, cool Facebook-style photo where you only see a small portion of my face. It didn't quite have the effect I was looking for, probably due to several factors: I just came in from the garden, my hair is all botchy, I have no make-up on, and I'm just a bit too old to do a Facebook photo like that. Oh yeah, and I have a bloody mosquito bite on my forehead.

Father's Day Ballgame

Last night we were privileged to take part in our first annual Father's Day ballgame with our church. It was a good way to mark a year of being here. (Just 9 days short of it.) I was amazed with how comfortable and enjoyable it was compared to just one year ago. I really have friends here! I appreciate how we've been welcomed and made a part of things here! Thank you!

And here are some photos of 2 of the MVPs last night:





Can you see the two little outfielders way out there by Daddy?

Running the bases

Fostering

Now it's serious. This is the first weekend that we are officially on call for emergency foster care. It's exciting, although Kendall is working nights right now and I don't relish the idea of getting a call in the middle of the night to take a scared baby on my own. But we'll see what happens.

Eli is now excited. It's true that several months ago he did tell the social worker that he didn't want a foster baby. (That was right after he told her that he thought spankings would help him stop spitting at inappropriate times and that he sometimes wanted to kick his little brother. Thanks, man.) But now he's excited. We've been outfitted with a beeper just in case we're not home to get a call. Eli was with me when our social worker gave me the beeper. Tonight I was in the shower and when I got out, I found the beeper setting on the bathroom counter. Eli explained that he put it there so that I would hear when it went off.

Summer isn't the most convenient time for us to be starting this. We have camping trips planned the next three weekends. We're mainly on for short-term, emergency care. We requested that we only be called for children up to 2 years old. At this point in our family life that seems like the wisest option.

We'll see what happens. Should be interesting!

Let the Summer Adventures Begin!

Here is the Happy Man with his new (to us, but definitely not "new") boat.



Here he dropped his family off at a remote beach at the back of a remote bay. (I had to crop the photo to censor it because the youngest son saw no urgent need to put on swimming trunks. Floaties first!) The Happy Man with his new boat motors off to continue fishing. Under strict orders to stay within earshot in case of a bear, he moves far away, but still within the large bay.
After swimming and reading for awhile, his family got hungry. On the count of three, the mother and two sons screamed to the Happy Man, "Come back!" Listening carefully, they could barely hear, "...as soon as I can!...the motor!" Upon further observation, the mother notices that there seems to be a problem with the boat. (Later she will learn that the battery died.) Hmm... After watching awhile longer, she sees the Happy Man pick up a paddle. He kneels down on the front of the boat and begins to paddle.

Unfortunately, nature seems to be working against the man. The wind is definitely NOT in his favor. He paddles furiously and his wife becomes concerned. He's probably not the Happy Man anymore. At one point, it appears that he is moving backward as he paddles forward.

Finally the ??? Man gets to a point where he lets the wind push him into shore. This photo picks up the story there.
Oh good! He's still the Happy Man.

Oh wait, as the Happy Man discusses the situation with his wife, it becomes apparent that he's actually the Crazy Man. He's prepared to settle in for the night! True, the bay is huge and the wind is blowing against us. But Karen has another argument: (Lots, actually.) We're not prepared to camp! It gets chilly at night! I have my contacts in! It's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow! There are fishermen out beyond the bay tonight! If it's raining tomorrow, we will have a lot of trouble finding fishermen to rescue us! Let's go for it now!

Another slight problem comes to mind: We're hungry now. We have exactly one peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Other than that, we have 1 raw onion, 1 raw potato, 5 raw fish, dry bannock mix, butter, water, and juice. So the mother gives the sons exactly 1 quarter of a sandwich each. They complain and she explains that we are in a Survival Situation. Using their admiration of Survivorman to her advantage, she reminds them that Survivorman doesn't eat a lot when he is surviving. Maybe we can find some juicy worms for them to eat later.

The family hears the sound of an approaching helicoptor. We'll be rescued! But, like so many people that find themselves in this kind of situation, the helicoptor turns and heads off into the distance before it reaches the stranded family. What despair!

Karen successfully convinces the still Happy Man to make a break for it NOW. The boys stand on the boat and are outfitted with distress signals. In case of a distant passing boat, they are to wave those ever-important floaties. Here they practice:


We shove the boat away from the shore and put down the anchor to avoid being immediately blown back to the beach. The Happy Man will try yet again to start the motor manually. He wraps a rope around something-or-other on the motor and pulls with all his might. Time and again he repeats this action. Karen prays and holds the key in. Finally, the Happy Man thinks he hears something different as he pulls. He tries one more time.
It starts! Karen screams and jumps up and down! The family is so happy! (Well, mostly Karen, who was most against staying out all night and/or paddling like crazy for an hour or two.)

So we slowly motor out of the bay and the battery charges as we go. Kendall tells Karen that the battery is okay now. Shall we go back into the bay to fry our fish?

No! she begs him. We made it out and she wants to stay well within sight of other boats for this evening.



It turned out to be a beautiful evening. We stopped at a place along the river where other boats passed from time to time. There we built a fire and ate a delicious meal of (cooked) potatoes, onions, fish and bannock.



Happy to be going home before the next day's sunrise, Karen speeds her family home.

Dryden

Last Thursday we drove 2 ½ hours to Dryden and shopped. We also took advantage of the opportunity to eat at Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Tim Horton’s. Yes, all of those places. In six short hours. But anyway, it was a fun day.

Our shopping options are limited in Red Lake and the prices are high. For example, we could buy a gallon of milk in Dryden for $3.89. Here it’s more like $5.69. A gallon of gas is $.35 cheaper in Dryden. Etc. etc. The prices were a major shocker when we moved here. (Almost one year ago!) Now I’ve accepted it much more, but like so many others here, we still take advantage of any trips out of town. We stock up. How much we spent today is a secret.

It was fun to get out of town, but this was the big news of the day: The sun was shining!!! It felt warm!!! I even wore a short-sleeved shirt part of the day!!!

So that was Day 1. And now it's summer. Just like that.

It's Good

So we’ve been back in Red Lake for nearly 2 weeks. I feel so much healthier than I did in April. March and April were hard months for me. I’m sure it was, at least in part, connected to the weather.

Most of the winter went much better than expected. I enjoyed the challenge of learning to do winter here. It was very sunny. I felt okay trading Northern Indiana’s dreary winter for a very cold, but bright and beautiful Red Lake winter. It was exciting to watch the thermometer drop and to see the snow pile up. Up here people are prepared for the winter. They dress for it and keep houses toasty warm and don’t let the cold keep them inside. I tried my best to adopt the northern frontier woman’s spirit and I think I did okay. Until “spring” sprung. And by ‘sprung’, I mean that the calendar said it was March 20th. That’s all.

March and April were difficult. Other women who grew up further south had warned me. But somehow it still hit me hard. I’ll spare you the details and just say that I’m still feeling somewhat scarred and shaky. Mild depression is something I’ve dealt with off and on since college. (That’s the first I remember identifying what I was experiencing.) It is, for me, very often weather-related. March and April were no exceptions. Depression shows up in me mostly as anger and lack of motivation (sometimes feeling more like paralysis). It feels like heavy, oppressive clouds that so often match the weather outside. I hate it and I fight it, but I think I need to, on some level, accept it as an occasional visitor in my life. When it decides to drop by for an extended visit, I try to make sure to get out of the house a lot, get exercise, see people and get plenty of sleep. And when all else fails, I just do what I did this spring: I just hung on for dear life until May 4, the day we started our voyage into greener, more southerly pastures. I felt like that was pretty much all I was up to- just hanging on.

Anyway, when Kendall and I first talked about spending some time in Iowa and Indiana, I almost didn’t want to go. With my state of mind, I just didn’t know how I could handle going and saying goodbye again. I miss my family and my long-time friendships, to put it simply. But Kendall encouraged me, saying that maybe I needed it and maybe it would be worth it.

It was. I needed that shot of warm weather, of green, of family, and of old relationships. I felt so much healthier by the time we drove back into Red Lake. It was nice to come back when it was getting warmer and greener. I was able to plant part of my garden within a week of being back. (A large portion of it is sitting beside me right now- plants that are ready to be put into the garden, but waiting until the weather is ready to support them.) The ice was off the lakes by the time we got back, so we get to see bright blue lakes again. The leaves are coming out on the trees. Tulips and daffodils are blooming. The bears are awake again and we’ve gotten to see a few while driving. It’s good.

It’s been good to get back and remember that I have a place here. I’m at home at church. I stop and chat with people I know at the store, on the street, at the school, at the post office, at the library, in the yard. I have friends that I count on seeing and connecting with each week- at our weekly lunch at Jenni’s, at toy library, at Friday night small group, at church. It’s good.

Yes, I still feel a bit shaky. It’s that feeling that hangs on for awhile after a traumatic experience. I’m not sure about doing the long winter again, but I’ll try not to worry about that now. After all, I made it and now we are into our balmy, beautiful summer. (Oops. I lied about the ‘balmy’ part and the ‘beautiful’ part is still in process.) But we’re on our way and it’s good.

June 5, 2009

It snowed this morning. Big, white snowflakes gently drifting to the ground. How peaceful. How beautiful.

Ahhhhh! (That was a scream, not a sigh of delight.)

The locals, however, go by the calendar, not by the thermometer. This morning on my walk I passed a poor shivering teenager walking to school with bare legs and flip flops. I, on the other hand, had on my winter-ready 'sibble cop' (hat, touque, etc).