Joshua, Anna and Paul's Birthday's

Some friends from a ministry called Arctic Barnabas came out and visited us and helped Paul install a new bay window that had been broken for quite some time. The cracks were continuing to get worse and it was good to get it replaced before it fell out completely. We had a good visit. Thanks guys!
They knew that Joshua's birthday was coming up soon so they brought him a cake.

On the actual day Joshua turned nine, Lavonne's Aunt Dorothy made him a delicious and beautiful cake for the celebration.
Anna's birthday was next. She turned 11, I can't believe how fast my kids are growing.

Everyone is helping Anna light her candles.

Paul turned 48 two days after Anna's birthday. He had me order him a couple of books he wanted to read. So, when they came in a couple of days before his birthday, I wrapped them up. He didn't think that was fair, but I told him that at least I knew I was getting him something he wanted.
Anna thought it would be cute to put all 48 candles on Paul's favorite, a sour cream and raisin pie. Paul thought it would be even funnier to light them with a blow torch. It worked quite well!

The fire alarm didn't even go off after he blew them out.

Snow in April... Lots of it!

We had an unusually mild winter. I don't think we had more than 4 inches of snow on the ground at any time all winter and that only happened a couple of times. Below are some pictures of the kids out climbing trees on a beautiful December day.

Anna and Sarah

Deborah carrying Sarah on the rope swing, while Quentin is making his way up the frozen creek.

Sarah climbing her first tree.

Quentin

Deborah

Today, April 4th, we woke up to gently falling snow. We got together with the other believers in town and celebrated Jesus' Resurrection. We had a great time of praise and worship as we celebrated what God calls First Fruits. It is an intriguing study (Leviticus 23) to see how God lined up His appointed times before time began. First Fruits falls on the day after the Sabbath after Passover. Jesus rose on First Fruits and the apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15 how Jesus is the First Fruit of creation.

As I write this, too late at night, it is still snowing and it did not stop all day. When the kids measured it about four hours ago, we had 8 inches. I'm sure it will be close to a foot by morning and after looking at the forecast, Paul says it could continue for a few more days!

Deborah in that same tree that was sunny and snowless in December.

Anna

Abigail

Tia

If you look to the right, past the apartments, you'll see our airplane collecting snow. Paul is planning on making a trip to Anchorage this week to do some grocery shopping. His plan is to take off on the lake and then park the airplane up at the airfield when he returns in anticipation of the lake thawing. He wasn't counting on all of this snow. The kids will have a fun time sledding behind the snow machines to make a nice packed runway on the lake for him.

Chores

When my oldest kids were quite young I realized that it was necessary to assign them weekly chores. Our first Chore Chart was born. It has gone through many changes as it has grown along with our family. For one, the font has gotten much smaller. I like to say that my kids will be able to read any bus schedule after growing up with this chore chart. It gets kind of complicated and several of my kids have taken it upon themselves to try and make it more fair. The kids like knowing what is expected of them, it cuts down on the squabbling and I know who to go to when a chore isn't done properly. Even though they do a bit of grumbling they don't question the fact that they are expected to get their chores done after each meal. It's just a fact of life. I am confident that any of my girls could run our home quite efficiently if I had to be away.

All of the kids when they were Sarah's age loved to run to the refrigerator after each meal to see what their chore is. They are so cute, unfortunately their enthusiasm is inversely proportional to their ability to do a good job on any given chore. Sarah isn't on the chore chart yet because I can still get away with pointing to approximately the right place on the chart and telling her what to do. I'll have to get her on there soon though, the kids learn which color is theirs very early and the first words they learn to read are sweep, empty trash, kitchen, etc.

Quentin & Sarah washing dishes.

Quentin takes after Tom Sawyer in that he is able to get the little boys excited about helping him out with his chores. He's an effective leader. He rules the boys room and many mornings I hear crying coming from the boys room because he won't let them come down to breakfast until their room is clean.

Below Quentin has the little boys helping him wash the dishes and of course Sarah had to be in there too.

Benjamin and Sarah emptying the trash.

David vacuuming. The youngest kids are always eager to run the vacuum.

Each of the older kids has a day to cook. Joshua, when he was 8 years old, began cooking with my help this last year. That leaves me with only two days to cook, yeah!

Below Quentin and Sarah are scrambling eggs.

The younger kids are always eager to cook. Sometimes, especially if Paul is not going to be eating, I let them go for it. I think in the picture below they are either cooking Ramen noodle soup (with vegetables added) or macaroni and cheese.

Sarah and Caleb grating carrots for a salad.

In the video below Quentin is getting then 15 month old Sarah to help him clear the table.

Homeschool Basketball

As soon as the schools in the area finished up with volleyball, we started playing basketball. Although I enjoy volleyball, basketball is my favorite. I played Division I basketball in college and coaching my kids and at times playing against them has been a real joy and great exercise. All of the kids love practice, Sarah is so cute doing her stretching exercises.

As was the case with volleyball, the public school here in Nondalton didn't have any high school age kids interested in playing basketball. Last year the district let homeschoolers play with the team in their village including traveling if it didn't incur any extra expense. This year the district changed its policy and decided not to let homeschoolers play even home games. Several Jr. High kids joined us as we played and at the semester break a high school student who had been away at boarding school decided to stay home for the second semester. He wanted to play basketball so the principal asked me if I'd coach him. So, he joined our homeschool team for practice and traveled to the district event by himself.

Sarah is a big hit with all the kids.

Newhalen, the next village downriver, has a very successful basketball program (they made it to the state semi-finals this year) and they play as many games as they can throughout the year. Once the lake froze over so they could drive across it, their Jr. High girls team came and played us. We borrowed the school's uniforms and had a great time!
We had a good turn out from the village for the game and afterwards we had several more Jr. High kids join the team.
Newhalen hosted a Jr. High tournament and invited us down. Paul and one of the other parents drove the kids across the lake. They spent the night and came home the next evening. They got to return the next day for the championship game so I piled the little kids in the pickup truck and Lavonne, Regina and I followed them across the lake down to Newhalen. The road was very icy...

Quentin & Josh A.

Deborah

Abigail

Anna, Quentin and Deborah

Quentin

Abigail

Anna was a favorite at the tournament. She is only a fifth-grader but she's tough. She would set a screen and get plowed over then jump back up. Everybody cheered her on.

Anna

We came in second in the Jr. High B team division.

Abigail and Deborah made the All Tournament team.

They had a big bonfire after the tournament with hot chocolate and marshmellows. It was quite dark by the time I followed Paul as we drove back on the icy road. Yikes!!

We invited the ladies in Nondalton to play us in a game. It was a blast having Mom's playing against their kids. We played two platoons. The older kids and then the younger kids. The older kids would go ahead and then the ladies would catch up. The ladies complained when the taller kids were playing and asked us to put the short kids back in. The kids won.
So, the next time we played, I played with the ladies so the tall Brendemuhl kids would have someone to stop them. The ladies won in a close game. I was really surprised at how well Abigail played against me. Her arms are so long and the referee (Paul) didn't keep her from wrapping them around me. When we got home we got out the tape measure and discovered that Abigail at 5' 9.5" is only one inch shorter than me. After the next game we got out the tape measure again and found out that her arms are actually longer than mine! I knew it! I suppose in a couple of years when Deborah and Quentin get taller, I won't have a chance.

We played one more game and Paul did a masterful job of mixing the younger kids and the older kids (not easy when they range from 5th grade to 10th grade). He kept the game close the whole way and it ended in a very exciting tie. The kids won in overtime. I think it was because of their superior conditioning and the fact that they had 12 kids to our 5 ladies.
We played one more game. Port Alsworth, the closest village up the lake, brought three players and they played three on three against our top four players. We won the first game and the older kids rested while the younger kids played against each other. Then the older kids played again and Port Alsworth won in overtime.

The little boys loved the fact that we brought the uniforms home to wash them.

Caleb

David