Our New Look

In the past weeks we have added some features to our smiles around here. So far they enjoy sporting these new features and don't mind the pain or bother. I pray that continues.

After years of orthodontist visits and following their dental recommendations Harrison is finally wearing their signature products. I totally thought he had managed to skip out of needing them and then in January Dr. said he really felt that it was time to put them on and that he truly needed them the sooner the better. Not for now so much but protecting his teeth for the future. His lower jaw is shorter than his top to much and causing his lower front teeth to wear out, he doesn't have any bumps on those teeth any more and that means that down the road those teeth would be shattering as he ate something hard. The big challenge he is having is learning to play the trumpet around them. His instructor had some good tips this week though so he'll be playing like the pros again soon. The challenge for me is remembering he can't have nuts and so on when I suggest or send a snack. No more whole apples for awhile.I am enjoying what a cute brace wearer he is.

Beatrice's aren't so apparent but she too has extra hardware in her mouth. She is in the first step to getting her teeth lined up in the correct places. Currently she is wearing a retainer that will straighten her top front teeth. She also had a frenectomy this winter and a couple teeth pulled to get her ready for this stage. Then when more permanent teeth are in she will be wearing braces as well. All this for the dream of easy masticating and a smile that is not only beautiful but straight as well.

Today we celebrated the fifth birthday of a Miss Megan. We had the pleasure of having she and her family here for her birthday today.

It takes some good eyes to see it but this is her girl cake (and her behind it :) She directed and helped with the decorating of it. Do you see the party hat on top? the raspberry smile? the chocolate chip eyes? the coconut hair? the brown skin? the number five nose? and the Happy Birthday necktie? It is all there.

Enjoying the changes.

~Anna

Fighting in the Church Yard

The Fight

This Sunday at Church I was lucky enough to see a red tailed hawk attacking a garter snake. It was really cool. Here is my favorite picture that I took.

The Aftermath

This is the aftermath, neither of them really won but I think the snake got the worst of it. Here are two pictures I took after the fight.

One of the hawk.

One of the snake.

-Harrison

My Winter Reading

I have read several books this winter. Some of them I have really enjoyed. So I thought I would share those with you in case you are looking for a good book for your quiet times. A couple were written by friends of ours and that makes them even more special. (Although harder to get, it appears to me, your library isn't likely to host them).

I am going to put these in no other order than random, since I can't choose a favorite and that seems easiest.

This first one was written by a good family friend of ours named Molly Hymes. I Remember When is full of information on how the Alaskans lived before electricity and snowmobiles and so many things that have changed their way of life in the last 50 years or so. It is memories from her childhood on living a subsistence style life in a harsh climate. The beginning of each chapter has a Yupik word and its meaning and then the chapter further describes that word. The book moves quickly and reads easily. It was really fun to get that insight into Molly's life.

The Dash For Khartoum A tale of Nile Expedition by G A Henty. This is a really old book. Its copyright is in the late 1800's. It was very interesting about boys who had been mixed up shortly after birth and no one was able to tell which was which. The one family was significantly wealthier than the other and it was decided that they should raise both and when it became obvious which boy belonged to which family they were to be separated. The boys were raised as twins and unaware that anything was unusual with their parentage. Because of various happenings they get separated in their teen years and both become soldiers for the British army. Through various adventures in Africa we learn how they find their parents. I don't want to give away the story so I won't share any more. I think Harrison would like this book but I haven't been able to get him to read it. One more thing of interest about this book is that I read it all on my computer. Amazon has a lot of free books for Kindle and this was one of them. If you download their app for reading kindle books on a pc you can read it there as well.

The Incredible Secrets of Vinegar by Marie Nadine Antol was a really amazing book full of great ideas for using vinegar, getting you excited to use more vinegar and the history of vinegar. Also it must be a pretty popular book because I had to wait for it while others had it checked out at our library and then I wasn't allowed to keep it any longer because someone else wanted their turn. Anyways, I do want to recheck it out and browse through it some more. I felt like I learned some good stuff from it.

The Joyce Lumber Story Timber Connections by Warren Jewett and Susan Hawkins. We were good friends of Warren when we lived in Grand Rapids so that is the reason I own this book. We also loved to hike, picnic and camp on the Joyce estate north of Grand Rapids when we lived there and I always enjoyed dreaming about the family who had lived on that property. The book gave a lot of information about other Joyce business ventures and not just the history of their time in that area. It starts with the first Joyce in America (1799) and takes you all the way to the last Joyce, Beatrice who died in 1972. If you are researching the logging industry during those years this book would be an excellent resource, if you have lived in northern Mn, parts of IA, and WI this book would be interesting to learn about the early settling of those areas.

I don't really think I will ever out grow my love for Madeleine L'Engle books. They aren't perfect for sure but such good reading, I do think. Margaret really liked this one, A Ring of Endless Light. She beat me to it and so I had to wait for it. I also read Camilla by her as well. It wasn't her best. I want to read the rest of her Austin family series of which this A Ring of Endless Light is one. I read the first in the series years ago and really enjoyed it then but didn't realize it had family.

This book Abbi gave me and I enjoyed it so much I have shared it with several since I read it. The Heart Mender, A Story of Second Chances by Andy Andrews. I don't think his parents had much of an imagination when they named him but he really does a good job writing books. This is a true story and very touching. It had history about World War II that I hadn't realized before this fall. I highly recommend Heart Mender!

It probably shouldn't have been my first time to read To Kill A Mockingbird, but it was. I totally enjoyed it. Sad and touching, that is probably my favorite genre and what I lean towards when choosing a book.

The kids and I have been reading this every evening after I tuck them into bed. Gets us our daily dose of American history in short clips. It always seems to open up a new discussion as well. We have really enjoyed The American Patriot's Almanac by William J Bennett.

Happy reading,

~Anna