If A Tree Falls In The Trailer, Does Anyone Hear It?

 This afternoon, Cam, Calen and the Boy Scouts went off on a mission to collect the town's unwanted (live) Christmas trees and haul them to the dump as part of an annual post-Christmas community service project. They borrowed a huge flat bed trailer and had to empty it twice at the city dump, all in all collecting thirty unwanted Christmas trees. 

Work builds character! And muscles! And video game time, because everybody's got a price. 

Calen on the left and Cam hidden behind his arm

Cam (on the right) and Calen in the middle

Day 3: How To Spend $16 on Three Items (in 2023)

 It was Camden’s turn today to go take that inferno of a gift card to Safeway, since it was burning a hole in his pocket.

Camden really didn’t have a whole lot in mind, except he HAD to have a bag of chips. We also didn’t have a ton of time, as both kids had sports practice (swim/hockey) at the same time, because of course they did. Combined with the fact that Camden has the hardest time making decisions when it comes to spending money, he took it upon himself to say he was only going to get a couple of things because he didn't have time to decide.

I thought that was mature of him to say.

How we dress for the grocery store 30 minutes before hockey practice

So what do 11 year old’s buy when they get (almost) free reign? A bag of bbq chips. Sweettart flavored gum (you know Sour Patch Kids, the candy?) A jar of Nutella (that he’s NOT sharing) Necessities, you know.

These THREE things ended up being $16, because groceries are stupid in Alaska. Especially Kodiak, Alaska.

But, he justified that the jar of nutella would make him like, ten sandwiches, so honestly, that's fair.

The gum was his favorite, he said it's so "flavorful" and keeps asking if I wanted to taste one. No, thank you very much, that sounds like the worst flavor of gum there ever could be. But that was part of the deal, use the money to buy something that Mom would never say yes to, so how could I say no? Honestly, this has been such a fun social experiment. I can't wait for them to go on their next shopping spree.

Day 2: The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

 It was cold today.

I mean obviously. It’s January in Alaska. But compared to the last week? Compared to the majority of our gross, wet, rainy, miserable, mild winter? It was COLD. It was so cold that when I went to start up my car this evening, it took two hands and a lot of strength to heave the driver’s door open. Then, as I opened Camden’s door (footnote: does every parent have their passenger seats “labeled” as to whichever kid normally sits there? Instead of saying “the right rear passenger seat”, we say “Camden’s seat”, because that’s where he’s basically been assigned since birth. Doesn’t everyone do that? No? Just me? Anyways. As I opened Camden’s door to search for an ice scraper and went to close the door, the door bounced back at me, because the locking mechanism was frozen. Well that’s rude. So we go to hockey practice and thank the good Lord it was a board meeting night because I spent all but 20 minutes of that practice indoors, thanks. And after suffering those 20 minutes of freezing feels-like 11 degrees, trying to scrape frozen fog off the rink glass so I can actually see, and then chirp at Cam to hurry up because I’m freezing, he asks if he can stay for open skate “because it helps my skating skills!” Which is a cop-out because honestly he just wants to hot dog around, but then he argues “but you always say to save your messing around time for open skate!” You got me, kid. You have fifteen minutes. Fifteen freezing, painfully cold minutes. But he didn’t care. He doesn’t feel the cold, like ever. He could be the next featured male protagonist in Frozen 3. The cold never bothered him anyway.

A blurry photo taken of a moving target through a frozen glass pane

So I dragged him off the ice 15 (exact) minutes later and we walk up to the car, the last car in the lot, and I go to put the key in. And the key lock is frozen solid. Like my key won’t actually go in. So there I was, in the dark, alone, shivering, with my hockey player (who was quite warm thanks because he was in full gear and just skated for two straight hours), knelt in front of my drivers door performing CPR on my stupid car (cupping my hands and blowing hot air into the keyhole) and then literally using my key as an ice pick to slowly jam it in the keyhole and jimmy it like some sort of horizontal ice fishing, until the ice either broke free or melted, then another two-handed pull to get the car door open. You know, Kodiak is mild temperature wise to the rest of Alaska. And don’t get me wrong, I love the cold and I love winter. But if we can at least leave out car doors and frozen keyholes, that would be just dandy.

Day 1: New Year, New You (Or Something Like That)

 If I had a dollar for every time I restarted this daily blog, I'd probably be rich. 

Rich like, enough to buy a gallon of gas rich. 

One gallon. Not a tank. Just so we're clear. 

But you know, "New Year, New You", or something of the sort. I was talking with a friend today (on Facebook messenger, which is relevant to my point in a minute) about how I wish I wasn't so dependant on social media (see the connection now?) to keep up with friends, family, etc. Yes, it's a wonderful thing. But it's also addictive, a time waster, stupid, etc. I need to install some sort of 15 minute/daily timer to the app on my phone. 

But the other big thing I love social media (particularly Facebook) for is the daily "Facebook memories", where I can see what I was up to in years past. Since I'm a frequent poster, I usually have something fun to look back on. Which is great and all but that should be able to fall into that 15 minute a day slot. 

So you know what I'm going to try to do (again), is blog instead. Daily. The 365 day challenge has returned! Of course I'm starting on January 4th, and not the 1st, because the 1st would be too easy, and it took me 4 days to figure out my New Year's resolution. 

So there it is. 

First of all, let me geek out (literally) about our new daily calendar. It's a space-themed daily RPG, where each day we continue our story, make decisions about what to do, roll some d20 dice, save the universe (or die), etc. 

I mean seriously, is there anything cooler and nerdier than this?

Today our hero (a droid) successfully broke out of his cage. Now they're in for it. 

Also today, I took Calen shopping after swim team practice. For Christmas, my mom got each of the boys their own $50 gift card to Safeway, to "buy all the things that Mom says no to."

I mean seriously, this is a brilliant Christmas gift. 

Calen, donned in his slick 90s style Pizza Planet jacket, swaggered through the store, gasping and chirping with excitement. "This is so fun, it's like being an adult, it must be SO FUN to have your own money and buy your own groceries and not have to share." He started in the deli, and moved to the bakery, where he checked the price of an entire chocolate cake, then laughed and said no and moved on. "Where is the cereal?!" He demanded happily, for if there is one thing I say "No" to on a regular basis, it's cereal, because it costs. so. much. So we march down the cereal aisle and Calen looks at a couple boxes and snaps "HOW DOES CEREAL COST THIS MUCH??" and promptly returns the cereal to the shelf and moves on, while I'm behind him stifling my laughter. 

See? Your mother isn't crazy. Buying a box of cereal for $7 that will last LITERALLY three days is crazy. 

A wild Calen on the hunt in the cereal aisle

The only "rule", per say, that my mom gave the boys was that it couldn't be all candy, and that Mom (me) gets final say. For the most part today I gave Calen free reign, within reason. Out of $50, he spent $18, and was delighted with himself at self-checkout and had to announce to the entire checkout section of Safeway that he had managed to "save four dollars!! I can't believe it!" 

I wish I still had that kind of fresh faced enthusiasm when I save $4 at the grocery store. 

So what do 13 year olds with gift cards and free reign buy for $18? After much deliberation, Calen picked:

The spoils of war

A bag of Salt and Vinegar chips
Four meat sticks
Salt and vinegar almonds (hey it's almost healthy)
A bag of lemon drops

So basically, his snacks are covered for the week, he was raving about the almonds in the car, and was over the moon with being able to go grocery shopping on his "own".

Best. Gift. Ever. 

A Week Of Art

 It's hard to keep up on blogs sometimes. 

But, we've gotten our fill of art during school the last two weeks. 

The boys finally finished their first day of school backpack, with all their interests, favorite things, places, things about them, etc. I'm a huge fan of how they turned out. 

Calen: baseball. Cars. Comics. Legos. Science. Kung Pao Sliders. Disney. 

Camden: Hockey. Disney. Dinosaurs. Video Games. Being a Garbage man. 

Also, we are steadily filling our wall with fall art! Some birch trees made of newspaper on a water colored fall evening, and pumpkins, because obviously. 

Today in school we also began a 4 week experiment on mummifying an apple - head. An apple with a face carved into it. So stand by for that weirdness. I should have taken a before photo. Maybe I'll carve a face into another, unmummified apple and pretend it's the "before" photo. 

Also, we went for a drive yesterday, saw a huge bear, and took fall photos in the amazing autumn colors. 

I don't even bother bringing my camera anywhere anymore. iPhone 13 pro for the win. 

When Left Unattended

 I had a doctor's appointment today, and left the kids to do their math while I was gone. 

This is what I came home to. I mean, he was doing his math, so what difference does it make right?

The First Day of Eighth and Sixth Grade

 It's the first day of 8th and 6th grade and I am not okay. 

I'm also in complete denial so I'll just sit here and drink coffee and pretend that they're still four and two and still toddlers. 

This is our third year of homeschool and it's still my absolute favorite. And although the boys would of course choose summer vacation over any type of school, I'm pretty sure they love it too. 

Since Camden is officially 11, I decided to make today Happy First Day at Hogwarts day, so I got up early, pulled out the chocolate frogs and lemon drops I had been hiding, and made Pumpkin Pasties (pumpkin pie mix, butterscotch chips in pie crust, bake at 400 for 15 mins, eat). 

Also, obligatory first day pictures, which went shockingly easy since the boys were in a giggly mood. 

We started the day with an "About me" art project, which isn't completed yet and I'll show you later. We are starting the school year with Ancient Civilization unit study, so we began reading the Bronze Bow (my read aloud), the Golden Goblet (Cam's read aloud), and since we are simultaneously doing an Africa geography study, a David Livingstone biography ("Dr. Livingstone, I presume?!" - Calen's read aloud). Today we did a basic timeline project of Ancient Egypt to keep on the wall. 

For science, we are continuing our Oceanography unit study that we began over the summer, and today learned about whales. 

The best thing about homeschool is picking what we want to learn! 

Liberty And Justice For All

 Is there any red blooded American that doesn't love the 4th of July?

We may not drink ourselves silly (or at all) or do anything crazy, but we still thoroughly enjoy Independence Day as a family. Usually in years past, we'd have a BBQ with friends, or go out on an adventure. Well the weather was trash and everyone was busy, so we had a very quiet day leading up to the evening extravaganza. 

How Camden ate breakfast this morning. 

We dawned our patriotic socks and sunglasses and spent the morning playing Legos and making treats. Of course Kodiak let us down with a shortage of red-white-blue produce that I was looking for (I'm not sure there's a box of blueberries anywhere in the state of Alaska right now), but that didn't stop us from having some quintessential American treats and snacks. Like Oreos with pop rocks in them and Bomb Pops, for example. You know, the classics. And then after lunch, orange soda floats, because America means junk food. 

Lego Abe Lincoln guarding the watermelon

Once evening settled in and we ate a later dinner of burgers and baked beans, we packed up our boxes and boxes of fireworks and launched off down to the road to the "Flats" (Women's Bay) to start our own personal fireworks show. 

Two things about Alaska. One: because it's light out until about 2am, there's never really a good time to shoot fireworks in the "dark". So we didn't leave the house until 10pm, when it's slightly almost getting darker (sunset is after 11). Two: there are no rules about fireworks, so we can buy as big and ridiculous explosives as we want. 

We met friends down at the bay and started with the firecrackers and smoke bombs and things that don't matter if it's light or not. We also staked three PVC pipes into the sand to launch bottle rockets out of (so that the kids aren't holding them in their hands). 

Grown up pop its. These things POW when you throw them 

The kids liked to take several smoke bombs and see what mix of colors he could make 

Then once it started to get kind of sort of almost darkER, we set up the giant fireworks and bottle rockets and put on a show. 

Shooting off the good stuff at midnight. Still not dark. 

Overall it was a super fun night and a fantastic 4th of July, even if it was quieter than usual. 

Sheriff Camden, Defender of Justice

 As Camden has gotten older, his personality has really come to light. Quick witted, clever, loyal, courageous and extremely passionate, to name many of his qualities. 

He's also earned the nickname (in this house and on the ice) the "Defender of Justice", as he is so deeply offended by any injustice, mistreatment or general unfairness that he witnesses, and by God will you hear about it from him. 

We were sitting down for dinner tonight and Camden came home from playing outside, 10 minutes late. I asked where he had been and he plopped down on his part of the dining table bench with a resolute well let me tell you where I was face that only Camden can have. We started eating (kung pao chicken stir fry, rice and pot stickers in case you wanted to know) and Cam announced:

"WELL, there's a new jerk in the neighborhood."

To which the rest of our eyebrows at the table rise suspiciously. 

"Oh? Who is it?"

"Some kid named Bobby" (name changed for anonymity)

"So what's his problem?"

"WELL, Bo, Jimmy and Jimmy's sister Jane (names still changed) and I were playing on the hill when Bobby shows up with a stick and started hitting Jimmy's sister! And she's like, FOUR.

"How old is this kid Bobby?"

"Ummm, like five or six."

At which Calen chimes in "Five or six?! Camden. You could have taken him and ended it."

And then I had to wave Calen off because I wanted to see how this story developed and told Cam to continue with a so then what happened.

"So I told him to knock it off and then he wouldn't stop whacking her legs so I snatched his stick and I told him "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

Cue me choking on a piece of rice, having to cough and splutter amidst my surprise and suppressing laughter, and interrupt his story. 

"Wait wait wait. What is the easy way and what is the hard way?!"

And Cam, casual as can be as he bites a potsticker, goes "Well the easy way was that he leaves and goes home."

"And the hard way??"

"We carry him to his house."

"Camden, you can't carry kids to their houses."

"Don't worry, he chose the easy way."

And when I asked if that was the end of that, he had more to say.

"No, later he came back, with his stick and this time I told him I was going to tell his mom and he started screaming no so I went and told his mom and she said 'I'll handle it'" and that was the end of it. Then Jimmy and I did a happy dance because Bobby got in trouble."

And thus, the Aviation Hill Sheriff was appointed. Defender of Justice, not afraid to carry perpetrators home to their mamas. 

The sheriff getting a proper clean shave before his next patrol of the neighborhood

Oceans Camp Field Trip

 The main point of doing Ocean Camp in summer is so that we can have any reason at all to go to the beach. For school, right??

Field trip!

We started at Gibson Cove this morning, which a couple of weeks ago was great tidepooling to find all sorts of sea creatures. 

But the odds weren't in our favor, and the cove isn't very sandy or fun, so we ditched it and went to our favorite spot at Boy Scout Beach, which actually had everything we were looking for. Sand. Sea stars. Sunshine. And unlike public school field trips, I only had two kids to look after. 

Chaperones not required. 

Waving at the C-130s as they did "touch and go's" over our head

Then we came home for stuffed crab lunch (tuna fish in Bugles), and Starfish peanut butter sandwiches and the kids went on the giant neighborhood slip n slide. 

Now that's a good field trip day.