Family Photo Shoot

The weather has been absolutely beautiful.

This one was not staged.  It is true that between photos two people chose to help two other people with booger issues.

I was not so smart and forgot to give Lydia a snack before photo shoot time.  She got me back by deciding that she would not smile and might even throw a fit.

This worked to get a smile out of her!

Looking Back

Just came across these beautiful photos from 4 1/2 years ago.  This week my sons will turn 10 and 8.  They're still pretty awesome.

I love Eli's expression on this photo.  Not sure if he was bracing himself for a kiss or what.

The boy is angry about something.

Still angry.

Labour Day Weekend

This is how we do things in Red Lake:

One of my favorite parts about living here is how socializing is so laid back.  Once or twice a summer a location is chosen and a big general invitation goes out.  People show up with their campers or tents and set up for the weekend or just for the day.  There's lots of sitting around the fire, beach time and campfire cooking.  The big kids play all day long, perfectly entertained, and the little kids get dirty.
This campsite was about an hour out of town, way out in the bush.  It's crown land (government land), like most of the bush around us, so it's free for the using.

Yes, that gourmet food Lydia is eating is a plain ol' hot dog.  Mmm...

This is Lydia's best buddy, her 3rd cousin, Tirzah.  I am unsure as to the reason Lydia thought it would be helpful to feed Tirzah her mac and cheese.  We found Lydia feeding Tirzah another time or two over the weekend as well.

An Afternoon Adventure

The boys invited a friend over for the afternoon.  They decided to walk out to our dock to go swimming and canoeing.  (We've started letting them do this as long as they follow the rule to wear life jackets every time they are on the dock.)  They walked the long trail through the bush to the dock.  At the dock they are only somewhat visible through the trees and the only way to communicate from the house is by yelling at the top of your lungs.

I could hear their voices and they sounded like they were happily playing.  I was sitting by the big window, when I looked up and saw this:

Those are bears, by the way.  They are exactly at the start of the trail leading to my children.

It was amazing to see, but they were between me and my kids!  I felt a little bit panicky and other than grabbing the camera, I wasn't sure what to do.  :)

I could hear the boys playing, but couldn't see them, and was scared that they were heading back the trail to the house.  I knew that as soon as I would start yelling for the boys, the bears would head into the bush, straight for the boys.

But I started yelling at the top of my lungs: "ELI!  ELI!"
Finally he heard me and answered: "WHAT?"
I yelled: "GO TO MILLERS!"  (Our neighbors across the bay.)
Eli:  "WHAT?"
Me:  "GO TO MILLERS!  THERE ARE TWO BEARS IN THE BUSH!"

At this point, I realized that the boys were probably panicking.  The bears had taken off, but not far.  I could still see a little bit of them nearby in the bush.  So I continued yelling: "YOU'RE OKAY!  THE BEARS ARE RIGHT HERE!  I CAN SEE THEM CLOSE TO ME!"  I yelled reassuring things.  However, I found out later, that the 3 boys were too busy running around and being scared to hear me.

A couple of them were in the water when they heard me say there were bears in the bush and they had to scurry to get out.  Poor Eli had to run up the hill toward the bush to get the canoe paddles.  And even worse, his friend really was panicking and near tears.  I think that actually helped Eli stay calm because he felt responsible to reassure his friend that everything would be fine.  (Evan wasn't panicking because, as he told us later, he didn't hear me and didn't know why they were now getting in the canoe.  He just went along with it.)  They made it into the canoe and their buddy calmed down once they were in it for a bit.  I yelled that they could paddle around for a bit if they wanted, but they said they wanted to go over to the neighbors and come home right away.  So I got in the van to go pick them up.  As I pulled out of our driveway, I saw the two bears running across the road to escape the yelling chaos of the Hochstedler property. (Poor things.)
By the time the canoe was on shore at the neighbors, the boys were calmer and it all quickly became an awesome adventure story:  The brush with death!  The close call with savage beasts!  They are all excited about telling their story tomorrow on their first day of school.

I felt bad because I knew that some of the panic was due to my yelling.  But that was our only form of communication.  Bears are supposed to run away, but lately we've been hearing more stories of bear attacks.  (Not in Red Lake.)  And I just really didn't want the kids to meet a mama bear and her cub on the trail.

I was proud of our kids.  They were brave and responsible and they knew how to get in the canoe and get to the neighbors.  And Eli was a good friend to his buddy.  He told us that his buddy was really scared and that he had to be beside him in the canoe to help him stay calm.  And about the near tears, he said, "Neither of us are going to tell that part of the story at school tomorrow."  :)

So yes, in spite of the beautiful animals just minding their own business near battle with the savage beasts, we are all fine.  Just not so sure about walking the trail to the water anymore...

The Midwest for Our Kids

It was very hard to leave our kids while we were in Costa Rica.  But they were in good hands with Mom, Dad and Karissa.  The kids spent most of their time in Indiana.  Toward the end, Leonard and Twila were passing through and stopped and picked up the kids for the last few days.  We were so grateful for grandparents and an auntie to leave them with.  The boys were excited and Lydia just never knew what was coming.  From what we hear, they did really well.  I'm sure it helped Lydia lots and lots to have her big brothers with her the whole time.
We were apart for 11 nights!  Too long!  But as you can see by the following photos provided by Grandma, the kids had a great time!  (Notice she didn't include the photos of the coffees drunk and ice cream consumed, nor are there any photos of the clock at bedtime... :)  )

We could hardly wait to get our hands on our kids when we got back.  So excited to see them!  The boys were ready to see us too.  I wasn't sure what Lydia would do.  She got a huge smile, but seemed to be in a bit of a trance.  She just quietly let us hold her and she looked oh so happy, but didn't really seem to know why.  If I could have read her mind, I would have heard, "I feel so happy...  Something feels so right..."  It did feel so right.  I love my kids!

Costa Rica Youth Trip

A little sigh as I see that the last time I posted, it was still May. 
It has been a busy summer.  We went to Costa Rica with our youth group in July.  We were kept very busy in the months leading up to the trip. 
We left for Indiana on July 11.  We spent a few days there and then left our kids with Grandpa and Grandma and Karissa.  Kendall and I flew out of Chicago and met the rest of our group on our layover in Charlotte, NC.  Then it was on to Costa Rica!

Here is our group plus 4 staff members:

We were very happy with Pura Vida Missions, the organization we went with.  The first few days were spent at a retreat center with another youth group.  It was a mini discipleship training.  From there we went to Jaco, a beach town, for a 5-day outreach.  We stayed in a church and did work projects, kids club and house-to-house prayer.  Every evening the Pura Vida staff would lead our group in a time of debriefing. 
During debriefing we would all share a high and low of the day.  My high was seeing the kids be pushed and then blossom as they tried something new or uncomfortable.  I was very proud of the kids.  I also loved the FOOD! 
I had some lows too. :)  I missed my kids lots.  I missed alone time/couple time.  I was HOT and tired.  I sometimes had to kick kids in the butt to get to work or have a good attitude.  (Not literally, by the way.) 
It was good for me to have to wake up each morning and put on my youth leader uniform: A smile and a thick skin.  (Now, if only I could figure out how to keep that uniform in good shape here at home...)

This may not look like hard work, but it was hot and it was hard work.




At the end of our time, we got a vacation day.  And I finally got to do something I've wanted to do for a long time- Zip-lining over the jungle!

In a Small Town

Living in this tiny, isolated town, we don't have a Goodwill or a thrift store to visit.  So Buy and Sell facebook groups have become popular.  Today we sold something on one of these groups.  I had no idea who it was that bought the item.  I recognized the name, but didn't know her. 

I called her number to set up a time for pick-up.  An older man answered. 
I said, "Hi.  I'm calling for Pam."
Unknown man: "Yes you are."  Huh?
Me: "I'm just calling about the-"
Unknown man: "I know."  Okay...
Me:  "Oh.  I guess you know everything."
Unknown man:  "No.  I'm reading your mind."  (Heh.  Heh.  Creepy.)  "I'm leaving to pick it up at your house right away."
Me:  "Okay.  So I guess you know where I live?"  (That was my attempt at a joke.)
Unknown man:  "Yep!  In Jake's old house!"

Isn't that a little weird?  Then when he arrived he greeted me in what I think was Pennsylvania Dutch.

This kind of thing has happened countless times.  It actually makes me smile.  A feel just a bit creeped out.

Happy Birthday, Lydia!

What can I say about this bundle of joy?
I cannot believe that just a year ago I was sitting in my hospital bed, stunned and awed by what had just transpired.  This baby girl, only 5 1/2 pounds. 

The past year has been so good.  I thought there would be days when we would ask ourselves, "What have we done?  It was so easy before!"  We acknowledge that life was easier a year ago, but there have been no regrets.  Lydia has brought our family so much joy.  There are days when I just sit there and smile as I watch her.  I just feel so happy to have her in our family.

 

The past couple days have taken me back to all that happened a year ago.  Lydia came into the world with a great deal of drama.  She was a miracle.  But then again, I am awed by what a miracle each new life is.

 

Psalm 22:9-10  "Yet you brought me safely from my mother's womb and led me to trust you at my mother's breast.  I was thrust into your arms at my birth.  You have been my God from the moment I was born."

 

Ever since Aunt Cathy gave me a teddy bear mold, I have the tradition of terrorizing my kids on their first birthday.  The cake looks so cute in the picture.  I copy the picture, really...but the teddy bear always ends up looking scary.

 





A Sorrowful Tale

Where oh where do I begin this sorrowful tale...

I'll start here:

That was cinnamon roll disaster #3, by the way.

Our youth group is having a bake sale on Saturday.  I need to contribute.  You have to understand that baking is not a natural activity for me.  I'm not ashamed to brag say that I make delicious cinnamon rolls.  But it is not second nature for me and it is a big day in the Hochstedler household when the cinnamon rolls come out of the oven.

Last week I had a beautiful batch of cinnamon rolls risen and was ready to turn on the oven.  Then the hydro (that's what we call electricity) went out.  What?!  I called Kendall.  "Oh yeah," he said, "There was a scheduled power outage planned."  I may have ranted and raved.  He suggested I run the risen rolls to someone else's house to bake.  Well, Lydia had just gone down for a nap and our closest neighbors also had a power outage.  I called a couple people to get advice.  Unfortunately, no matter how you look at it, over-risen rolls just fail.  It took me awhile to get over that one.

So I was going to bake yesterday.  Glenda even lent me her Bosch so that I could do more than 3 pans at a time.  Well, yesterday I woke up sick enough to die.  (Not really, but I nearly passed out when I first got out of bed and depending how I would have fallen, I could have hit my head just right and...you know...)  I wasn't surprised that I was sick, since I felt it coming on and the boys both came home from school the day before with stomach aches.  Kendall stayed home from work and I slept.  A lot.  I let go of the baking idea.  Until last night.  The baking was nagging at me.  I had a few things in the freezer from last week, but not enough.  So last night I did a batch.  Like always, it was more work than I planned.  But there were 7 beautiful pans of rolls.

This morning, Kendall was in the kitchen first.  He came and very kindly warned me, "I think you're going to be disappointed when you see the rolls."  I was.  Every single pan had fallen!  Under-baked!

So today the boys are home sick and Lydia seems to be feeling under the weather too.  I feel much better, but still not so great.  I was considering letting the cinnamon rolls go.  I even got some very kind motherly advice from one of the 5 or so people who were unfortunate enough to call or run in to me today.  (I say they were unfortunate because I took every possible opportunity to unabashedly unload my sorrowful tale, a.k.a. complain.)  This friend advised me to let go of the cinnamon rolls if my kids and I weren't feeling well.  I appreciated her advice and considered taking it.  I laid down for a nap when Lydia did, but couldn't sleep.  So what did I do?  I got up and started a batch of cinnamon rolls. 

Hahahahahahahahahaha!  (maniacal laughter)  (Evan just looked over my shoulder and kindly suggested, "Mom, I think there has to be spaces between the ha ha's."  No, not this kind of laughter.  I demonstrated maniacal laughter and he was convinced.  Or scared into silence.)

Bad idea!  Listen to your elders!  19 pans of failed cinnamon rolls!  All from the person who barely gets 19 pans of rolls baked in an entire year!

I laughed and laughed.  I may have yelled too.  Something like, "I want my mom!  Or my mother-in-law!  Heeeeelllllpppp!"  Lydia thought it was great fun and added her little yell with her arm waving around.

Evan has been trying to be very kind and helpful to his maniacal mother.  He said, "You'll just use the rolls you can and then leave it, right?" and "I think if you bake more, you should do something other than cinnamon rolls."  Then he asked, "Can I make cookies now?"  I can't remember for sure, but I think I said something about killing anyone who talks about baking.