Evan's Secret Weapon

Evan recently let us in on his secret weapon. He informed us that he uses it at school if someone is mean to him. Now I share it with you:



Evan was serious when he first told us about it, but after watching it on the camera and laughing with me, he said, "That was funny. I mean funny."

Craft Show

So, the craft show... I actually did have a lot of fun, but it wasn't as profitable as I was hoping. (I don't think it would do me much good to figure out how much I made per hour.) I didn't do a good job of keeping records, but I think that, after taking out my expenses, I made somewhere around $150.

I just had no idea what would sell. I wasn't confident about the aprons, but those were my biggest seller. I was confident about the evergreen arrangements, but people just were not interested. So 2 days of work didn't amount to much. Money wasn't a problem there, since most of the materials were free from the bush.

I really think things could have been different with the Christmas arrangements if there was snow on the ground. Everyone is amazed, but there is no real snow to speak of. Last year around this time, I remember a huge mountain of snow by a nearby parking lot from all the plowing. But the weather has been extremely strange this year and we have no snow. So I think people just aren't in the Christmas mood yet. I ended up selling 8 of the 16 arrangements I made, but I really think some of those purchases were based on pity. :) The other 8 I had fun giving away, so it's not all a waste.

I did have a lot of fun being at the show. It was fun to see so many people and get to know some people I recognized from around town, but didn't really know. And now I have an idea of what people buy for future reference. Chalk it up to good experience!

I'm only posting because I accidentally came across this old photo and it gives me the shivers. And maybe because, while I'm proud of him for being a real-life superhero, I also want to get back at him for some unknown event. (Hint: If you blow up the photo so it fills the screen, it's really scary.)



And, no, I don't want to talk about the craft show right now.

Maybe I will tomorrow, after a good night's sleep to take the edge off my grouchiness. (Hmm....maybe I'm just feeling irritable and homesick and since Kendall's not here for me to take it out on him in person, I do it through my blog. Sorry, buddy. I knew you could handle it.)

I better go to bed now before I start posting other freaky pictures to make myself feel better.

Goodnight.

Craft Show

This is what has been consuming my time, energy and thoughts lately. The craft show is tonight and tomorrow. I've been so nervous, not knowing what to expect. Will people show up? Is there even a market for the things I made? How much do I charge? What do I do with pajama pants that don't sell? What do I do with 16 evergreen arrangements if they don't sell? Do I even have 16 friends to give them to? Do I really have friends? Does anyone like me? What am I doing here?! I'm such a foreigner! (Whew! Got a little carried away there... Actually, friendships are one of my very favorite parts of living here and it would be no problem to find 16 places to give arrangements.)

Anyway, I went today to set up and now I'm getting excited. There are quite a few sellers and I realized that I know more of them than I thought I would. And I get to be right beside Sue and her yummy homemade donuts.

Here's how my kitchen looked yesterday. I ventured out into the bush alone to cut these evergreen boughs and I made it back alive. I will not be showing photos of the rest of my house at this time since I have...um...let it go for the past little while.


I was happy with how they turned out. Thanks to Laura for the demonstration she did a couple years ago.


Here are the pajama pants and cloth napkins. (As a side note, I'm going green: I'm going to make cloth napkins for us to use. I hate using so many paper napkins. Is it actually "greener?" I guess you have to wash them. We could just resort to Eli and Evan's method of wiping our mouths on our shirts- they're going to be washed anyway.)


Here's a close-up of the napkin rings I made out of some sort of cable and floral wire. Now I'm really wanting to take a jewelry-making class.

There are also aprons, but I still need to set up that display before the show opens tonight.

Photo Session

Here are the results of a photo session with two cute, but uncooperative, boys:








Oh good grief.

Insights

Oh, the insightful little tidbits into the way our kids' minds work...

From Eli: When I was younger I thought that if you were raised as a girl, you'd change into a boy. And if you were a boy, you'd change into a girl. So I wanted to be a girl.

Me: So you'd be a man?

Eli: Yeah.



And from Evan... I was watching him in his class during circle time. His teacher was showing the class a crudely-drawn pair of gloves as they worked on words that start with the letter G. She asked what the drawing was. Evan eagerly raised his hand.

Evan: A hand?
Mrs. Morse: No. It's something that you wear on your hands.
Evan: Fingers?
Mrs. Morse: No. It's something you put on your hands to keep them warm.
Evan: Skin?

Smile.

Someone just pointed our son's fame out to me. (Click on the underlined part.)

So, we submitted photos to a community contest earlier this year in hopes of winning a new camera. We didn't win anything, but they still got our photo.

By the way, if perusing this website really gives anyone an itch to visit Red Lake, we know of a good place to stay and good (most of the time) people to hang out with!

Spring is Here!

It's been a long, cold winter, but spring is finally here! (I must have slept through most of it because it seemed like it was only a week long.)

We've had quite a bit of snow on the ground for the past week, which was completely normal. In fact, they say it often falls the first week of November and stays until April. So, though I wasn't quite ready, I knew I good very easily be saying goodbye to the grass for a long, long while.

But blessing! Wonder! Beauty! Rapture! THANK YOU! It got warm! We have had 3 warm and sunny days, the snow in our neck of the woods melted, and we had a second chance to rake those leaves I never got to. It has been beautiful and I am not taking it for granted.

And another wonderful thing is that Kendall had this weekend off! So this afternoon we went on a long walk in the bush. The pictures that follow don't look very warm or sunny, but trust me, it was a beautiful day. The snow didn't melt in the bush and the sun had started fading, but it was warm. And relaxing.





This color never ceases to amaze me. I cannot believe that there can be a color this bright that is not battery-powered. Well, it's definitely NOT a natural color, so I guess it serves its purpose. And yes that is a (unloaded) gun Kendall is holding. Kendall took his gun(s) on our walk, though we almost never see any wildlife while walking as a family thanks to our natural animal alert system. (ie yelling, running kids) But I guess you always need to be prepared- you never know when a deaf and blind moose will step out onto the path ahead of us just waiting to give us a freezer full of meat.



If you look closely you will see that yes, I am wearing camouflage pants. Bushwoman.




Eli and Evan were overly impressed with the sand pit.
Eli: "This place rocks!"
Evan: "Everything here rocks!"
Eli: "This rocks, dude!" (hands held high in some weird teenagerish sign of victory)
Sigh.




I love the many varieties of moss!

Washing Feet

Last night, as usual, Eli chose his picture Bible for his bedtime story. We read about Jesus washing his disciples’ feet as a servant would. He told them, “If I, your Lord and Master, have served you, you should do the same for one another.”

Well, I happened to know that we were going to have a foot-washing service in church this morning. Kendall would not be there, so I would have the boys with me. I explained that we still wash each other’s feet sometimes to remember how Jesus serves and helps us and to remember that we want to serve and help each other. I told them that if they would like, we could wash each other’s feet at church in the morning.

So this morning at the end of our church service there was an open time for people to wash someone else’s feet. Eli and Evan agreed that we would all wash each other’s feet. So we sat down at a warm basin of water. First we washed Eli’s feet, tickling him only a little. Then the boys washed my feet and dried them for me. Then Eli and I washed Evan’s feet with Eli’s true motive appearing to be tickling.

This foot-washing wasn’t the practiced, refined washing, the gentle patting dry, or the formal hug to seal everything that I’ve experienced in these services before. It was a bit messier. Water dripped on the floor and people, a child’s face unreservedly showed the pleasure of the warm water, the towels were all disheveled, and people were tickled and had water spritzed at their faces.

You know, I really get tired of being on my own with the boys. Kendall’s work schedule has proven to be more grueling than we expected. I get so tired of taking the boys to church by myself and of serving meals by myself and of entertaining them by myself and of refereeing and disciplining them by myself. I wash their feet all the time. I wash their whole bodies. I comb their hair. I wipe their bottoms. I tie their shoes. I clean their crumbs off the floor. I clean their pee off the toilet. I read them stories. I tuck them in bed. I tuck them in bed again. And again. I serve them all the time. Isn’t that just what parents do?

But I complain so much. In my heart and out loud. I’m not ignoring the fact that parenting is hard work or that Kendall’s work schedule takes its toll on all of us. I think it’s okay to feel tired sometimes. It’s okay to need a break. It’s okay to vent frustration to someone.

I want to see my service to my sons differently than I so often tend to. It’s true- I have to serve them. I have no real choice. But I also want to grow in serving them out of love. I want to be aware of the ways that Jesus serves me and then, in gratitude, to turn around and serve Eli and Evan. I am so thankful for these two little blessings.

And by the way, soon after we returned to our seats this morning, the time was up on how long these two little blessings could sit still. While the atmosphere was quite relaxed, it was still relatively quiet. I let the boys play around me, not paying too much attention to what they were up to. I was soon reminded of their presence, however, when I heard lots of giggling and a loud greeting from under our chairs: “Hello, Mr. Butt!”