babies

One of our chickens, Honeydew, started to act broody a while back - wanting to sit on eggs. After she kept it up for a few days, Nana made her a private nest in the old dog house annex to the chicken coop. She passed a trial run of sitting on a clutch of Sophie's wooden play eggs, so Nana went to Swampy Acres to get some possibly-fertilized eggs. Honeydew sat on her eggs faithfully for 23 days, until first two, then four, then six babies hatched!

This is Radish.

Espresso.

And Mama Honeydew, not happy with me for intruding.

There were two more eggs that had chicks inside, but sadly they didn't make it out of their eggs. Papa helped Sophie bury them in a flower bed. The other six are doing fabulously - Honeydew is such a great Mama hen! They are not yet a week old and they are already following Honeydew out into the yard, where she pecks treats and drops them in front of her chicks, teaching them what to eat. Then they all go back in their little nest house for a nap snuggled under Honeydew's wings. It's incredibly entertaining to just sit and watch them eat, drink, play, and fight. And I love watching Honeydew's mothering.

Sophie is working on taming the chicks right from the very start. Welcome to the next generation of chickens in the family: Stew, Mindy, Espresso, Radish, Darrell & Darrell. 

emergency! winter has arrived

That is the view from the 7th story of Alaska Regional Hospital, where I was doing my intensive clinicals for three weeks. Winter was ahead of the game in Anchorage - there was a snowstorm on Halloween night!

Anyway, winter has made its way down the coast to Juneau. Yesterday, Sophie and two of her friends were playing in the front yard while the mamas sat inside drinking coffee. All of a sudden we heard boots running on the porch, and muffled yelling. Sophie shoved the front door open, saying, "Emergency! Emergency!"

My friend and I both jumped up and ran towards the door to see what the "emergency" was - expecting a crying child at the very least. But no one was crying, and Sophie pointed up at the roof of the porch, where there were ice-sickles hanging from the eaves.
"We can't reach! We want to eat the ice!"

Emergency indeed.

finished object, a rainy day, and muffins

First off, the finished object - Habitat by Jared Flood. I wore it today to the beach hoping that the rain would block it to my head all by itself. It may need some actual blocking some day, but for now it'll work!

It was a rainy summer day, warm and very wet, and we joined Outdoor Preschool at Outer Point for three hours of fun in the woods and on the beach. Here's Sophie with a limpet she found, right before she tried to stick it to her nose :)...

And then we came home and made muffins! My kind of rainy day. I used the recipe from the bag of Bob's Red Mill Oat Bran, and instead of whole wheat pastry flour I substituted 1/3 quinoa flour, 1/3 wheat germ, and 1/3 Bob's gluten free all-purpose flour, plus a handful of whole flax seeds. For the wet ingredients, I put a banana, three carrots, a handful of raisins, and a couple handfuls of walnuts together in the food processor and then mixed them in. I also halved the amount of sugar.

They turned out good, very tasty. The only thing is that every time I've tried to use the gluten free all-purpose flour, things turn out slightly burnt on the outside before they're done on the inside. Is there a trick to getting gluten-free things to turn out right? I'm not even doing all gluten-free, just trying to incorporate more alternative grains (other than wheat) into my baking.

tiger's candy

My mom used to make these things called Tiger's Candy when I was little. I remember them being amazingly delicious, and even better because I was allowed to have them almost anytime I wanted one.

I'm mentally getting ready for camping season (one more month maybe??), and I have begun experimenting with different ways to get more protein into Sophie without a fight. Protein = energy = kids who will hike without fussing (as much). This is my theory anyway. So I found the recipe for Tiger's Candy online and made a test batch while Sophie was at preschool today.

I rolled them in cocoa powder since Sophie loves chocolate, but next time I will try rolling them in shredded coconut.

In my opinion, these aren't as amazingly delicious as I remember, but then again everything's better as a child. I'll have to ask my mom what substitutions she used.

Here's the recipe - adapted from Diet for a Small Planet:

Tiger's Candy

1/4 cup peanut butter

2/3 cup ground sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon wheat germ

1 tablespoon ground flax seed

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 cup finely chopped raisins

cocoa powder

Blend peanut butter and ground sunflower seeds together, then add wheat germ, flax seed, honey, and raisins. Blend well. Form into balls and roll in cocoa powder.

The original recipe calls for powdered milk, but I looked all over the grocery store and couldn't find powdered soy milk to substitute, so I just threw in some wheat germ and flax for fun instead. I'll have to look at the health food store, because that seems like a good way to add protein to just about anything.

off the needles/on the needles

A pair of socks are off the needles and completely done! Another one in the Christmas pile.



I love knitting socks. I've only knitted plain ribbed socks, though. I want to try a pretty pattern like these or maybe these.... someday. I do appreciate a good solid plain sock though. Mostly I keep knitting the same socks over and over because I have the pattern memorized, so they make good tv-watching or Sophie-watching knitting. The endless stockinette is broken up enough by the heel and the toe to make them interesting, and they're pretty fast to knit as well. Always a plus. I always have a harder time with completing the second sock, but for this pair I split them up and knitted the cowl in between. I think the two socks fit better with having done something different in between - usually I knit the second sock just a little bit tighter than the first, and that didn't seem to happen this time.

Hand knit socks are so much more comfortable than regular socks! It feels like getting a massage every time you take a step. Try it, you'll love it! :)

On my needles now is the second sleeve to my o w l s sweater, which I can't believe I have never posted about before.


That's the body which I did last summer, and at some point I knitted one sleeve. Now I'm about half way up the second sleeve and then I have the yoke to do. This goes super quickly, with chunky yarn and size 10 needles! I'm excited to finish this and wear it. I think this will be my camping sweater - it's 100% wool, and it will be pretty warm. The yarn isn't the best quality though and I know it will pill pretty quickly. That's ok with me - I love camping clothes! I plan on wearing them a lot this spring, summer, and fall. Can't wait for the snow to melt!

a new model

I'm going to put all my knits on Daisy for pictures from now on. Doesn't this color look fabulous on her?





This is the Upstairs Shawl - one Christmas present down! This is a very easy to follow and forgiving pattern, and I'm thinking of shortening the width to make scarves. I still have two more scarves to make before Christmas! Along with two hats, a pair of socks, a sweater (toddler-sized, at least), and who knows what else I'll think of along the way. Can I do it? Perhaps I was overly ambitious this year... I need a schedule like the Yarn Harlot.

Summer is over, and "cold and flu season" has begun. We've already been sick all summer! Swine flu - check. Croup - check. Ear infections, allergic reactions, more infections... maybe it'll slow down as everyone else starts to get sick. We had frost the other night and termination dust on the mountains :)

Sophie is starting to skip naps once in a while, will only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch (uh oh... we're out of bread today!), and had her first night away from Mama last month. I can't believe that her friends are starting to turn 3 already! I still haven't found out about my nursing program, it starts in January and they still haven't decided which 10 people will get in. I've heard from some people who went through the same program that they didn't find out that they got in until November. Oh well. I'll just knit more while I wait.

outside

It's finally Spring! I knew it would happen. We've had quite a few days of sunshine in the past week, and it's actually been warm out as well. Today we were all out puttering, I raked (some early preparation for Sophie's birthday party!) and Sophie took a nap in the yard (with a blanket,
of course. It's not that warm out!).



I took these pictures last Friday when Sophie's friend Bailey was here - most of that snow is melted now!






It's been awfully hard to get any studying done... thankfully I only have a few days left.

I got on Ravelry the other night and showed Sophie some pictures of finished pants from the pattern I want to make her for her birthday, and she was very excited about them. I ordered a bunch of yarn to make my dad a sweater for his birthday, in August - ambitious, I know. It's the new City Tweed from Knit Picks and I'm pretty excited about it. I love Knit Picks! I allowed myself to knit (just a little!) on the socks I'm making for Donna last night... it just made me want to knit more. Two more days!

Obsessed? Perhaps. At least it's productive.

the end in sight

The end of winter...
The end of diapers...
The end of classes...

All are beginning to come into sight.

Happy Spring!

happy spring

Today's the Vernal Equinox, and it's snowing outside, so I thought I'd put up some more reasons why I really do love Alaska.... even if spring doesn't show up on time.

1: View from Crow Point


2: Auke Rec (this is Hillary doing a cartwheel....)


3: Sandy Beach


4: West Glacier Trail out to the ice caves (that's me and Sophie when she was 3 months old)


5: Bonfires on the beach.


Oh Spring, please come soon....

a beautiful day in the neighborhood

We got a pleasant surprise today - a warm, sunny day to wrap up September with. The cottonwoods are yellow and dropping all their leaves already, it hasn't rained (yet) all day, and the breeze is cold but not the air.

Sophie played with leaves in her stroller on our walk on the Airport Dike Trail this morning. We both had to take our coats off because it was so warm out, I think they said on the radio highs to 55 degrees today. Sophie got tired of sitting and playing with leaves by the time we got to the end of the trail, so we had a little play-break on the beach.

She likes to throw rocks as far as she can, run as fast as she can, and when she gets tired she likes to find the wettest place she can to sit down in. Like a bunch of seaweed. Or beach weeds.

We better enjoy the beach (and the trees, and the clean air) all we can now because we're moving back to Colorado Springs in December, right before Christmas, and right after my semester at UAS ends.

Some other changes: Sophie's down to one nap a day now (which she is currently protesting) and she is going to bed earlier (usually she's asleep by 7:45pm). This gives me less time to do homework during the day but more time at night, which I guess is a good enough trade. Also I am back on methotrexate after an almost four-week break due to getting caught up with a new doctor here in Juneau, and am now back to feeling like all of my bones have gained an extra pound or two.

But it's a beautiful day, I've got nothing to complain about, and Sophie wants to go out and play!

fall is here

... but we're still trying to get some more summer out of these last few days (fall officially starts on Monday!).

Sophie and I are pretty busy these days. I have classes four days a week; the "new parents group" that we started going to when Sophie was two months old has grown up and split into two - us, the "old parents group" because we're not new parents anymore! - and the real new parents group for little babies and their mamas. I'm co-heading the "old parents group" and having so much fun.

I have to wonder if our babies will still be friends when they start school. High school. College. They have already been "friends" for what seems like a very long time; a year even! One of our parent group babies, Lydia, is having her birthday party this Sunday at Sandy Beach (still hoping for some more summer!). It really is hard to believe.

Sophie is at Grandma and Grandpa Manning's house on Thursdays, while I am at my Anatomy & Physiology lab, and the whole family turns out to sit around and watch her sleep.

She is so lucky already to have all of these friends and family.

a day in denver

and it was HOT! 95 degrees to be exact. i actually think that today was the hottest weather i've ever been out in.
we walked up and down 16th avenue, it's a foot-traffic and hybrid busses-only street. pretty cool. we had a slice of banana creme cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, it was good! i've never had the cheesecake factory before.
then we went to a park and sophie herded the pigeons and dwayne got bit by a squirrel.
head on over to dwayne's new blog to see the pictures!

happy fourth of july

we had a busy weekend! festivities started on july 3rd, we went to a carnival-type thing on post at around four, the fireworks started at 9:30. sophie actually liked the fireworks and had a good time. the sky was crazy and there was lightning mixed in with the fireworks:









then, the next morning, we went camping:










then the next day, we washed the car, went thrifting (yes, dwayne went too!), went out to dinner, and saw a movie (hancock).

then this morning we went for an 8 mile walk and then went out to lunch with rosi and esparza.....

i think the rest of today and tomorrow we will take it easy!

some new old pictures

some pictures from last weekend that i haven't gotten around to uploading yet:


she's very helpful when daddy's playing guitar hero.




the deer in our campsite, see it?




this takes a lot of concentration.




hugs :)

thunder at midsummer

sophie loves watching the thunderheads just like i do.

a little off-subject, i am working on my final project for history of midwifery - if anyone knows of a good source for birth art (ancient times to present day) i would love to know about it.

denver aquarium

here are a couple pictures from the aquarium:


sophie looking at the sharks....



...and sophie looking at the jellyfish.

we didn't take pictures at the museum or at the zoo! we kept forgetting the camera in the car.