Spring Break

 Neal was working during spring break and the kids were not giving me any ideas of what they wanted to do besides watch a screen all day, so I took matters into my own hands. Put in a request to Opa and he made plans to take Rhys out fishing for his first time at the end of the week. Meanwhile, I am pleased to say that it doesn't take much to make my kids feel like they had a good time. Just leaving the same four walls is good these days.

We headed to Oak Point Park to take in a 45 minute hike because they have dirt paths and it's not hiking unless it's on dirt for Rhys.  

Then we took off for Paris, Texas about an hour and a half away with our first stop at Buc-ee's, a chain of travel centers known for their clean bathrooms and amazing selection of convenience food and gift items. If one stops at Buc-ee's for gas or bathroom use, they will leave a whole lot poorer for it, which is why we seldom stop there. This makes it a highly coveted stop for my kids and this time I obliged. We left with chocolate covered beaver nuggets (the beaver being iconic to this business and nuggets are not what you are thinking but a puffed, crispy, maple flavored snack), chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate chip cookies. It's a shame we don't like chocolate in this family.

An hour or so later, we arrived in Paris and headed straight for the Eiffel tower, done Texas-style of course. I'd been here before with my sweet heart and done this and another stop we'd make before but for my kids, this was a first.

Yep, that's a red cowboy hat atop the tower. The kids said, they were imagining it much bigger, and the Eiffel tower in Paris, France is a whopping 324 feet high compared to his 65 foot one. Now Texas is really proud of doing everything bigger and I am thinking that there must have been some budget issue because they did not even come close to outdoing France here. But I'm sure the French "fart in our general direction" so we accepted and moved on to the amazing veterans memorial immediately next to the tower. 

The memorial isn't even finished but a good portion of it is and I was surprised that my kids really enjoyed the beauty and meaning of the memorial in juxtaposition to the corny tower replica next door. My little babies are growing up so fast! Sniff, sniff. It really is a top notch memorial. Enjoyed the plaques, engraved bricks, and statues. The windy day was perfectly whipping the flags above us. We learned about gold star families. It was a good stop.

Next we were off to the Evergreen Cemetery and I know you are thinking, "oh gosh, Keri is going to force those kids to document gravestones and try to pass it off as spring break fun." I will have you know I exercised amazing restraint for the children because that cemetery contained less than 80 documented (for Billiongraves.org) gravestones and there were well over 2000 stones in that cemetery! Gasp! I know--sad but true. However, we came to see the statue of Jesus wearing cowboy boots and that is just what we did!

Can I get a "Yeehaw!"?  Now, truth be told, when I mentioned to my kids that there were less than 80 gravestones documented there, Sophie took it upon herself to show some compassion and told me I could document some while she ate snacks in the car. I kept it to 5 minutes because I can keep my priorities straight (sometimes, and this was one of those times--poor dead people).

Next up was a tour of the architecture in the area.  I know, what kid cares about that! I don't even care about that. But we were just happy to be out and doing something different and I'm telling you, this is what small town Texas has to offer, so we happily partook.

Sam Bell Maxey House (He was a Confederate general and US Senator)

That was it and we were headed back home.

Friday morning, Opa took Rhys out to fish. Rhys got to practice casting. Rhys liked fishing. He liked the calm of it.

Pretty decent adventures for last minute fun.

Balloon Volleyball

 Aunt Jolene gifted the kids cash dispersed in balloons for Christmas. Since Christmas our family has been engaged in fierce balloon volleyball matches. I am not kidding about he fierce part, either. Cut throat, people.  We actually had to buy a gross of balloons to keep us supplied. It's been a great way to connect with the kids and keep our bodies moving during the cold months when we really don't want go outside. I love that we've found hours of play given a piece of latex and a span of yarn.

Texas Snowmagedon

 And it snowed...and it snowed some more. But with the record shattering temperatures, we had to enjoy it in small spurts at first. On the 15th of February the high was 14 degrees. The kids were brave enough for a quick snow angel to disrupt the smooth blanket.

February 17th - Neighborhood friends and family snowball fight in our yard

Feb 19th was the last day for decent snow before it was slush so we built a very tiny snowman. Rhys has always really wanted to build a snowman since Sophie and Kira did in Colorado a long time ago. So we made it happen. I think the size was pretty comparable to theirs too. We tried for bigger but just couldn't make it stick. Wins the cuteness award.

 We were extremely blessed during this cold time. For us, it was enjoyable. We had fun. We were sorry for those who didn't have power for long periods or rolling outages, including Oma and Opa. They hunkered down near their fire as their pool became a frozen pond and stayed with their dogs. We invited them over but they only came for an afternoon. We never lost power. Our pipes stayed in good shape thanks to my husband's good efforts and God's blessings. Lots of families were moving from house to house to stay warm. It was a good reminder for preparedness for us. Thinking over "what would we do if" situations.

Here is a picture of Wall-E doing snow days right.

Valentine's Day

 Sophie heart attacked Rhys' door.

Oma sent Hot Cocoa bombs our way.

And of course we already had our own sweet plans. We made dark chocolate covered honeycomb with our real honey rather than sugar--we are beekeepers.

And we had our traditional "fancy" dinner of "never on a date" food. This year chili dogs.

It started snowing heavily today. We are to have a snow like we've never had here. We are thrilled and yes the outdoor faucets are covered.

Lunar New Year

 We celebrated Lunar New Year entirely in food. It was really cold out and we like food, comforting food.

So Asian inspired pastries for breakfast. (ube bun yumminess) Thank you 85 Degree Bakery.

Pork buns and tapioca sweet buns (Sophie's choice to try--we no likey) for lunch. Thank you 99 Ranch Market.

Americanized orange chicken, egg rolls, and pot stickers for dinner. Thank you Trader Joe's.

My Asian culture loving girl enjoying her pork bun.

Sophie hanging out with some ducks at the Asian market.

Dad Passes Away

 Dad started a steady decline when Mom went in the hospital for her heart attack. With a fairly quick decline starting after Christmas. I'm glad I helped Dad and said goodbye when I visited in October and November. I said that I loved him over the phone and decided to come out once he'd passed to help mom, encouraging her to use the available help we'd set her up with when I was there earlier. She really struggled with knowing when and how much help to let in as his decline was quick. Dad was not really eating, drinking, or talking so we got our tickets. Dad passed away from pancreatic cancer that night on 25 January 2021 with mom by him. Jolene came in to be with mom while hospice took care of removing Dad. 

Neal and I showed up the next day. We spent 10 days there. We removed the house of his things and spent hours and hours taking care of the clerical changes that come with a death. Jolene juggled her family and helping as well. I spent an entire Sunday going through all the genealogy stuff Dad had from grandma and his sister, that he had moved from California about a decade prior. So many photos and memorabilia. We only got out twice. Once to Port Townsend to walk the beach where I clearly saw bald eagles for the first time. The other day was to spread Dad's ashes and sight see. 

We spread Dad's ashes near the Olympic National Forest where he wished them to be. Mom shed a few quiet tears and was pleased we did it the way he would have wanted. We visited a favorite bridge he liked called descriptively enough as High Steel Bridge. We also visited Rocky Brook Falls. While driving we saw two large bobs of seals along the coast, a bald eagle, and a herd of elk. We ended the day having dinner from Panda Express so basically the exact way dad would have had it. 

I had a pow wow with mom about living with us. I communicated my desire to have her around us and the kids, my belief that a team around her was the best way to help her live a healthy and longer life, and that though she had taken care of her diabetes to this point, it was not humanly possible to be perfect 100 percent of the time. She communicated that she'd had a good life, she'd do her best to visit, and that she wanted to live alone. That this is what she wanted and that I needed to let go of my fear. We compromised by having her monitor alert us when her blood sugar levels were too low. I have her police department on speed dial in case Jolene is unable to intervene in her behalf.  So certainly not ideal in my book but mom is living the life she wants to and that part make me happy.

We are super grateful for the support family showed us--Oma and Opa giving up their lives for two weeks to take care of the kids, since they attend school online. Kira for her helpful information about dad's decline. David for jokes he texted to keep us smiling and lightening the mood for my mom when we shared them.

Backyard Goals

 Working as a family, we have some big goals for the backyard this year. This week we put in a lot of work with the help of the kids. Keri worked on treating the new bee boxes with linseed oil in preparation for paint. The kids helped oil the garden box wood and cut it. The kids and I also sifted through several large containers, removing the styrofoam we used for drainage in the old system and keeping the dirt for the new garden box. We trimmed up some branches that were hanging low to our new fence and the house. We used the branches and the raked leaves to fill the bottom half of the box using a hugelkultur method, dumping all the sifted dirt on top to fill completely. Neal and Keri spent a couple evenings assembling the hive boxes and frames. Then Keri painted one new hive box using up the rest of the yellow from last years hive painting job and painted the second new set of boxes lilac.

A bit of snow dusting our garden bed--the first in a very, very long time!

 

Cats

 

Big moment here. Lady must have been desperate for warmth because she is scared of Neal for no reason at all.

Also a big deal. That cat toy, Sophie crocheted it. She stuck with something challenging. I am so proud of her!