Kotzebue Culture

Monday, March 28

I loved the NANA Museum of the Arctic. Berry picking season sounds awesome--I'd love to be here in late summer just for that! I am glad the people here are striving to preserve the values and skills of their native culture--they are impressive and just plain good. But the current culture, which has emerged in Kotzebue as modern conveniences and government aid have been incorporated, lacks the beauty and the character-building sense of community that seemed to exist in the past. In too many instances, resourcefulness, creativity, and physical labor have been replaced with entitlement, addiction, and slothfulness. How sad to lose the traditional Inupiaq values and language. My generation doesn't speak the language, but with the help of the elders and the school, the kids now are learning. And at the museum, they have resources to pass down some really cool skills. Like this book I found that my dad would love--A Guide to Edible Plants of the Tundra--wow. Imagine just surviving off of the land up there, with no food flown in--impressive.

Speaking of food flown in, we also visited the 2 grocery stores in town today. Milk was $11 a gallon at the cheaper store. The selection was actually better than I feared, you just have to pay for it. Cuties were $7.88 a pound, not a box.

Potatoes were $13.99 for 10 pounds, at the cheaper store. Are you serious? Potatoes are supposed to be dirt cheap. Not in the Arctic tundra. A delicious-looking 2-lb bag of fresh snap peas cost $14.95. Even non-perishable items like cereal were plenty expensive.

At least apples were on sale for $1.98 a pound, which is only twice the cost of sale prices up here in Montana, and maybe three times the cost of sale prices in Colorado. Somewhat reasonable. People shared their ways of keeping their grocery bill down. You can order a box of farm fresh produce online and everyone picks it up at a local church, which keeps shipping costs down. People also fly to or through Anchorage quite a bit. While they're there, they head to Costco and stock up. Alaska Air lets you check 4 carry-ons per person for free for in-state flights, so you can get it home without shipping costs. I guess you can make it work, but being as frugal as I am, I would seriously struggle to let myself buy luxuries like green peppers and snap peas.

Could I really see my family living here? People who live here tend to describe it as a struggle. You make do. It's an adventure. The real bush experience. Day-to-day life with little kids? I dunno, it just doesn't strike me as the most family-friendly location on earth. Most of the providers we talked to at the hospital either came within the last year or so or are planning on leaving in the next year or so. I could do it for a couple years, but do we need to, honey?

Math Monday

My sister, the one who convinced me to start a blog back in the day, used to run a "weekly feature" that I thought was kinda fun. It was based on her hobby/pre-motherhood professional life, and it was a way for her to spread what she believed in: promoting health and happiness through better nutrition. Well, today as I was having preschool time with Elodie, I was winging it as I generally do, and I came up with this little game. It worked so well, I thought I would share it. And so, readers, my new weekly feature, Math Monday, is born. As a former (and future) public school math teacher, I like promoting intellectual health and happiness through better mathematical understanding. Feel free to share this link with anyone you know who teaches preschool co-ops or is looking for games to prevent their children's minds from turning to mush over the summer.

Has this conversation ever occurred with your child? "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10." "Ummm, 16." If so, then this game is in your kid's ZPD, Zone of Proximal Development. That's teacher talk for something your kid can't quite do yet but is ready to learn. All you need is a deck of Rook cards (or hand-made number cards with the numbers you want to work on). I call the game "In Between?" for obvious reasons. It only takes a few minutes to play, but it's amazing how a few minutes of your undivided attention can make a kid feel so special. Enjoy!

In Between?

Concept: Greater than/ Less than (great for 3-5 year olds, but fun for older siblings, too)

Players: 2 or more

Materials: Rook Cards

Object: To collect the most cards by getting a third card that goes in between the first two.

How to play: Mix the cards well. Place the full stack of cards in the middle of all the players. The first person takes 2 cards and lays them in front of herself. She puts the lower card to the left and the higher card to the right. She then draws the next card in the stack. If it is in between the first two, she gets to keep all three. If it is less than the lowest or greater than the highest, she puts all three in the discard pile next to the draw stack. If the first two cards are either next to each other or an exact match, then obviously no whole number is in between, so she has to discard those (either before drawing the third card or after, depending on how long it takes her to realize that nothing will fit in between). Then the next player takes a turn. Play continues until the whole stack has been used. The lucky player with the most cards wins!

How to maximize the math learning going on: Most importantly, let the kid take his time to think through it himself. Let’s say he drew 4 and 11. He then turns the next card in the stack over, let’s say it’s a 9, and asks himself, ”Is 9 in between 4 and 11?” When he figures it out, ask him, “How did you know?” and help him put words to the strategy he used to figure it out. For example, if he says, “I counted up and figured it out,” you could say, “Oh, very smart, you used a counting strategy and found out that 9 comes after 4, but it’s still before 11. Good thinking!” If he says, “I just knew that 9 was bigger than 4 but not as big as 11,” you can compliment him specifically saying, “Wow, good mental math. You’re developing a really good sense of what numbers are bigger and smaller. I can tell your math brain is turned on!” If he can’t express how he figured it out, ask questions and help him come up with a way to explain his thinking. If he says the number is in between, but that's not correct, you can still ask, "How did you figure that out?" and keep questioning to help him discover his own mistake. This is a very powerful skill in math--self-checking. When it’s your turn, think aloud to model how you solve problems. “OK, I need to compare these two numbers. I know that 6 is less than 8, so I’ll put the 6 to the left of the 8 (I actually make them face the right way for Elodie, rather than for myself) with a little space between them. Hey, I noticed that there’s only one number that is between 6 and 8—7! So if I don’t get a 7, I won’t get to keep these cards!” Have fun learning math together!

The Kotzebue Branch

Sunday, March 27

Church was wonderful. It just seemed especially Spirit-filled and worshipful. The numbers were few, but the Spirit was not at all diminished; if anything, it was increased, to make up for the lack of numbers! What a powerful affirmation that this is the true and living Church upon the Earth.

There were 15 locals there and 8 visitors, including us. They don't usually get visitors; kinda funny that they got so many in one week. Three of them were the stake presidency who flew in from Anchorage with us the night before for branch conference. The other 2 were the branch president's parents who came to visit since they just got back from a mission to Scotland. They didn't have a primary--the oldest kid was only 4, so he just had to repeat nursery. And they had 3 young men, but no young women. Kinda like our ward back in Sidney!

Church was only 2 hours long since they don't have the numbers to keep every auxiliary running. It was totally back to basics, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The branch president was so good at focusing on people. He just radiated the pure love of Christ. After sacrament meeting, the adults and young men had Sunday School while the little kids had nursery, supervised by the branch president that week. And the church building was really cool. It was a big gym with a cool-looking wood-beamed ceiling and classrooms and a kitchen and a stage around the gym. Sacrament meeting was held on the stage, closed off by a nice curtain. No hallways, just doors opening into the gym. I've never seen a church building quite like it. Unique just like the town.

I could picture myself being a part of the Kotzebue branch... We would definitely need to make friends and invite them to church so my kids wouldn't be alone in primary! What an adventure!

(Disclaimer: I did not take this picture, I found it online and borrowed it. When we were there, snow completely covered the ground. You definitely could not see things like pavement! This must've been taken much later in the spring.)

Arctic Adventurers

Saturday Night, March 26

Our first night in Kotzebue (we flew in at about 8pm)

This is what I would have blogged if we were connected to the rest of the world via the world wide web. Don't worry, the WORLD WIDE web has made it to Kotzebue, just not to our hotel. I had to use a notebook and pen. Weird.

WHOA! I am in the Arctic Circle. I just ate surprisingly delicious Schechwan Vegetables, Potstickers, and Orange Chicken (at the Empress Restaurant) as I watched the sun begin to set over the frozen Bering Sea. Beautiful. And surreal.

And the short walk (2 buildings down) back to the Nullagvik Hotel (which you can apparently just call The Hotel because it's the only one in town to speak of)? Completely FREEZING! Like leave my hat, coat, and boots on for five minutes after coming inside freezing. Like, Arctic freezing. Like, what am I thinking taking my baby out in this?!?!?! freezing.

And now it's 10:00, it's not totally dark yet, and I'm being serenaded "I've Got Friends in Low Places" by a group of guys through these thin hotel walls. Karaoke anyone? Looks like "We will Rock You" is coming up next.

Could I really see myself living here? Calling it home, even for a little while? Whoa. The Arctic Circle. My mind is blown.

Decisions, decisions!

Well things are happening on the job search front and we're pretty excited about it all! Aaron got his first job offer last week, in a town called Delta Junction, Alaska. He visited that town a year and a half ago and he really likes it. My favorite thing about that town? It is connected, by roads, to other places! And after a couple of telephone interviews, Aaron was invited for some in person interviews/ site visits. He got more invitations than we could squeeze in, actually. This week, we're leaving to check out two places: a tiny town called Medicine Bow, WY, not too far from my family in Denver (about 3 1/2 hours) and Kotzebue, AK, yes, the one in the Arctic Circle. Aaron convinced me not to knock it 'til I tried it. Culbertson, the little town where Aaron is now doing his final rotation, may have a position for him, but it's up in the air. As much as we are all loving this area, we don't feel like we should just wait around for possibilities and let definite offers pass us by. So when we fly back into Denver, we're going to spend the evening in the temple and hopefully decide where we'll be spending the next few years of our lives! We know the Lord will guide us in the future as He has the past. It'll feel so good to decide and move from the job searching mode into the move planning mode.

Siblings

Just being the goofy kids I know and love, a couple Sunday's ago. The beauty of it is, even if mom and dad don't think they're funny, they think each other are hilarious. Last night after I tucked them in, I heard them laughing uproariously about I-can-only-imagine what. I walked up to their closed door to eavesdrop and heard Xander whisper: "Shhhh, Elodie! We almost got in big trouble." I'm so glad they get to share a room.

This afternoon, Xander and Elodie were playing "Mom & Dad." Xander was the son. Named Christopher. Elodie was the mom, as usual. Named Chelsea. She first told me she was 19, but when I suggested that was a bit young for a mom, she threw out 38. Sounds good. As Xander was carrying around his big black clothes bin loaded with additional essential items, he informed me: "I'm carrying this because I'm 18 and I'm going to college to study foot fungus." Good thing he thought to pack a Nerf gun and the purple laptop. He was set. His mom, Chelsea, was very helpful with packing him up and getting him all ready to go. Although she did disagree with Christopher about who got to drive on their way to college, but I guess those power struggles are

normal between a mom and her barely adult son. Chelsea let her son know she was still the mom and he would not be driving, even if he was the one who grabbed the keys from Hazel, who was playing contentedly in her exersaucer. See? Cute, huh? (Her big brother recently learned to make paper boats, which can be shaped nicely into hats. This one from his daily math worksheet was just the right size for Hazel.)

I was making dinner and enjoying the entertainment. Foot fungus was the first thing that popped into your mind as something to study, huh? I love it! Aw, what would my kids do without each other? On one of Xander's school papers he brought home last week, he had written, "I like to play with my sister." Aren't siblings the best.

Speaking of siblings, today was a big first on the sisterhood front. It was the first day that Hazel and Elodie shared clothes. Sure, pretty much all of Hazel's clothes are hand-me-downs from Elodie. But today is the first time Elodie tried wearing something of Hazel's. Hazel was wearing these little jeans this morning before a nice up-the-back incident if you know what I mean. This afternoon, the jeans were just lying on the floor. Elodie tried them on and loved them. She said she looked "just like a mom" in them. Which to her is a very good thing. Unlike being cute. She is "tired of being called cute. Hazel is cute."

Yeah, they are size 3 months. But they almost look like they were meant to fit that snug! Elodie said they were comfortable, too, and wore them the rest of the evening. Oh, the memories. I loved sharing clothes with my sisters. I remember feeling proud the first time I was finally big enough for Marliese to ask to borrow a shirt from me. It felt like such a compliment. Like I actually had something cute enough for my super cool big sister to wear.

And come on, check out what my kids are wearing. Like it's summer around here or something! I will say, 40 degrees never felt warmer to me either. It's pretty amazing how quickly one can acclimate and become completely nuts!

Dream Big

El: Did you wanna be a Mom when you growed up?

Me: Yep, I did.

El: I wanna be a princess when I grow up.

Me: How do you do that?

El: You just study, and that's all.